Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How many scales while probing is a male and a female? I can't find any counts while doing post searches. Every care sheet I found didn't mention the counts either.

Thanks,
Matt

According to "The Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas" Table I on page 46, 9-10 subcaudal scales for males and 3-5 subcaudal scales for females. They only list Morelia Spilota Spilota and Morelia Spilota Variegata but I believe this book hasn't really changed in a while. They don't show any subspecies of Morelia other than that and also don't distinguish between Spotteds, Stimsons, Childrens and Anthill (pygmy) pythons either, but the info should still be valid. If you don't own that book yet, you should get it.

Thanks. I have plenty of books, but none told the actual scale count. I don't do the probing, a friend does. I was just making sure my two were females. Both probed 6 scales, so I guess I am still unsure of sex.

I would say at 6 subcaudal scales that they are most likely female. It might depend on the size of the snakes themselves. With my males, I have to be careful or the probe will disappear. So probing that shallow is almost certainly females.

If popping the snake as a fresh hatchling isn't an option, you may be in for some guess work...especially if you're talking about an adult. Some carpets of both sexes can probe 5-6 subcaudals (we call those "tweeners" and you pretty much have to go by feel when you're probing...tighter usually means a male and if there's a little play, you probably have a female. If you want to get an idea of what's what, you may want to probe a few other similarly sized Carpets (ones that you are sure of the sex) before hand. In the end, you may end up having to wait until it's an adult and throw it in with a male to see what happens.

Popping hatchlings fresh out of the egg is (in my opinion) probably the most accurate way to sex a Carpet Python. They're one of the only Pythons I know of where popping females is almost always spot on because you can almost always get the "pocket" to fully evert....and on females, the fully everted "pocket" will be much broader and shorter than a hemipene and is much lighter in color (light pink/white as opposed to red).

However, with hatchling males, sometimes the hemipenes don't always evert. That's when it's time to get the probes out...just to be sure. So far (5 clutches), every time I've had a hatchling that I couldn't get to fully evert, it's turned out to be a male.

I'm certainly no expert and I'm still learning myself, but sexing Carpets can be a pain, so I figured I'd at least tell you what I've learned so far.
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

Thanks for the info Anthony. I certainly have no where near the experience you have, but I too have thought that popping hatchlings has worked fairly well. Hopefully I haven't missed any of those tricky males you spoke of that don't evert. About how often would you say that happens?

Thanks again,
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Ben