Reptile & Amphibian Forums

2 snakes approx. the same length, age unknown. Can you still go by tail length to determine sex?? The local reptile vet (who is very good by the way) would not "pop" because she said it was to stressful on "little" snakes. She is used to the really big guys....so just curious if they needed to be the same age or same size to tell.
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Jenea

Wait, she won't pop baby snakes but will pop adults? You need to tell her she has that backwards. You are not supposed to pop adults because the muscles around the hemipenes are much stronger. When manually everting the hemipenes damage can be done to these muscles. The key is to pop very young snakes, the muscles haven't fully formed and don't give much resistance. It is easy to sex hogs without popping though. Just flip them over and hold the tails, below the vent, side by side. The one with a much longer tail is a male, 90% of the time. Probing is probably the most effecient way though.

Hognoses are easy to visually sex, as long as they are larger than ~12 inches. Like Trace said, the male will have a longer tail, wider at the base, and the taper will be much less abrupt than a female. There is also sexual dimorphism, with females being the larger sex. Male growth rates slow considerably once they reach about 24 inches, but females will rapidly reach 30 inches, and keep growing from there. It would be interesting to know the max recorded length of a male Eastern, compared to the impressive 45 inch record for the species.
Shane

OK I get the general concept- males longer tails--females bigger. Here is my situation. 2 snakes 22.5 inches long. Age unknown. One with approx. 2" girth, the other 3". The bigger hog has the longer tail. The bigger hog is at least 3 years old ( I've had for 2 years and it was at least 17" when I got it). The other I have had for 2 months. Both were WC rescued from getting killed. I know one is male and the other female by the way they reacted toward each other. I am just having trouble figuring out which is which. Can you compare tails just because they are the same size?? Or is age the key factor?? Maybe this pic of the two will help. Sorry for the quality, they did not want their pic taken. Had to pull them out of their hids.

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Jenea

How do you know they are a pair by the way they interact?

They displayed typical breeding behavior. However, the one displaying the male behavior (the yellow one) is now the one in the "nest" box. I guess I am just confused and would like a definitive answer.
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Jenea

male left and female right. That's just a wild guess. Take a pic of their tails showing the vent.

Hope this will do. The first pic is of the one that was on the right.

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Jenea

good luck on eggs!!!

Thanks
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Jenea

...

Thanks
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Jenea

I think the orange one is the male.
Looking at the other hog, it's fatter, and looks like it might already be ready to lay eggs.
I should have noticed that on my snake..but I didn't. She was awful big around!!
That orange/red is a beautiful snake..
I apologize if it's backwards..but that one looks awful big to be just fat..
lol
Good luck,
Califia
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Cali
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