Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

My question here is about knowing the gender of your pet snake(s). I have five snakes in all, of which I am only sure of the gender of two of them (my adult burm, and my adult boa). The other three are young (a kingsnake, a milksnake, and a ratsnake), and so could still very well be probed to determine for certain just which gender they are.

But I've heard that probing isn't the nicest thing you can do to a snake (an understatement there, of course). So I wonder, how important is it to know? I understand of course the implication it has on naming the animal, but I don't name my pets (I'll explain that in another thread if you're interested as to why). And I don't intend to ever breed any of my snakes. But I can't help but have a compelling desire to know, if for no other reason than to just be able to correctly address any of them as either a him or a her.

So, is that enough of a reason to have the snake probed? Or do you feel it isn't worth the stress it would put on the animal?

Whatever your thoughts/opinions are, please share.

Thanks,
- Mark

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I don't think the probing will cause any harm or mental phobias for the snake. The value in determining what the sex is determined by you.

One reason is to find out why your snake is a certain sex is because it may be acting a certain way. Say for instance a male will go off feed for a couple months and act restless looking for a mate. Or a female may get swollen due to her follicles. Since you are not interested in breeding them, then you probably won't brumate them either. But that does not guarantee they won't cycle.

If you really care for your snakes (which it seems like you do) then it would be more sensitive on your part to understand what types of things that they are going through.

Dr. Phil