Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay~ I thought I knew what I was doing~ but isn't it always the case that once your confident you know what your doing~ you discover you don't!

I purchased several CH females back in 03'. When I purchased the first 5 I did not know how to sex them~ but a friend drove all the way out here and showed me shortly after that (and before I purchased the other 20). So~ Of the first 5~ my friend told me one was a Male. He doesn't take up much room so I didn't really worry about him. This year I decided I needed the rack space he was taking up, so I advertised him for sale. No one wants a normal male, so this morning I offered him up with an 03'CH female to sweeten the deal. Someone wrote and asked how I knew for sure the female was female. I was about to respond because my friend sexed her in 03' and I had sexed her in January of this year (when I doubled checked all my future breeders cuz I just wanted to be sure, and I was bored!) I'm sure in January that female4 probed female, and male2 probed male (and I would almost swear he popped sperm plugs then too) But just to be sure~ I probed her today. She probed at 5 subcaudal on the right, 6 on the left. THAT suprised me. Then I double checked the male. He only probed 5 on both sides (I popped both for sperm plugs and did not get any). I'm sure I don't have the animals mixed up as took pics of all the babies in 03' and can compare dorsal patterns.

So I pulled the ad. Now I just don't know what I'm doing!
They do this on purpose don't they?
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

Sounds to me like you have two females - when probing males you'll notice that the probe slides fairly easy down past 9 scales. If you get to 5 or 6 I would wager that that they are females that may either just probe deep or that they were probed too deeply somewhere down the line and had possibly been punctured which would result in future probings being deep. Give them a rest and try popping plugs and probing another day - another trick that I learned was that males tend to have darker red parts because they have more blood vessels inthe area to invert their penes - before you probe them if they are lilly white then likely girl if they are pink then male - not 100% accurate - but its another sign to look for. I don't think I've ever heard of a male probing as shallow as 5 and 6.
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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

I don't have a lot of expeirience yet~ 4 years and learning! I thought I knew what I was doing~ but I've had much more exp popping baby corns than with probing adult/subadult BPs. When I probed the female at 5 and 6 I was still pretty sure she was a female becuase I am accostomed to males probing much deeper~ but when I checked the male and he only probed 5 on both sides~ well now I'm just unsure of myself. I'd almost swear I popped sperm plugs on him last January! I'll give them another month and pop--probe them both~ but at this point maybe I'll just be better off waiting until they finish growing out~ the female will be worth more and easier to get the male a home then anyway!

Thanks!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

Whenever I probe a group of CH, I go through the group two times. The first time I work through the group I separate all the definite males. The second time I go through and re-probe the females and the ones that were a little deeper than expected but not as deep as the definite males. Sometimes a male will tighten up and not probe deep. The definite females will probe about 4 scales deep. If they probe 5-6 scales deep the second time, they are females. I've never had a male probe shallow two times.
John Q