Probing

[JonD]

Hi all, just wondering if there are any informational sites about how to determine the sex of a boa. I'm not going to do it my self, I'm just wondering the procedure. Thanks

[JDouglas]

Any good snake book will have info regarding sexing. In boas you can look at the spurs. Males have much larger spurs. This method doesn't work with babies. Popping the hemipenes is an effective method, but if you don't know what you are doing you can harm the boa. As far as probing it is also effective but can be harmful if done incorrectly.

Look at this site...
http://www.pythons.com/probing.html

[Derrick]

Originally posted by JDouglas
Popping the hemipenes is an effective method, but if you don't know what you are doing you can harm the boa.

So how do learn to do it? I in no way mean to sound like a smart @$$, just curious. How did you learn? Which is the preferable method?(probing or popping)

[JDouglas]

Squeezing to hard in the wrong manner to pop hemipenes or probing incorrectly can harm a snake.

You can learn by having an experienced person show you or by reading books or websites like the one listed above. I prefer popping very small boas and probing juvenile/adult boas whose sex can't be determined by their spurs.

[Linds]

Originally posted by JDouglas
Any good snake book will have info regarding sexing. In boas you can look at the spurs. Males have much larger spurs.

This is an unreliable method of sexing most species. Males do not always have larger spurs, and sometimes they can be very close in size. The only snakes that can be reliably sexed by spurs are the erycines (the females lack them altogether).

[Tim_Cranwill]

http://www.vpi.com/9VPITipsAndTechs/DeterminingTheSexOfSnakes/DeterminingTheSexOfSnakes.htm

[JDouglas]

This is an unreliable method of sexing most species. Males do not always have larger spurs, and sometimes they can be very close in size. The only snakes that can be reliably sexed by spurs are the erycines (the females lack them altogether).

Linds,
You are correct that it is not 100% reliable but it is a good indicator. This is why I posted this in my last post...
I prefer popping very small boas and probing juvenile/adult boas whose sex can't be determined by their spurs.

If a boa has extremely large spurs it is a safe bet that it is a male. All of my males have visibly larger spurs than my females. You are 100% correct that spur size is not reliable for all boids.

Here is a quote from VPI
In most cases, the size and shape of spurs are an indicator of the sex of a boa or python, but this is not always an accurate means to determine sex with certainty.