My new sand boa

[fateamber]

I got my new Kenyan sand boa today, I'm not sure if it is a him or a her, but the person i bought it from said it is about two years old. They fed it in the shop and when moving it to put it in the plastic box I took it home in, it bit me :D

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/508/1925DSCN0797.JPG

I hope the pic works :)

[Dani33]

Awesome, congrats. They're great little snakes, I love mine!!!

[BoidKeeper]

I love all 4 of mine too!
Good luck with him,
Trevor

[Stockwell]

It's a male...
Congrats and welcome to Erycines

[DragnDrop]

Congrats on the new 'kid'. They always remind me of giraffe necks, but cuter.

Roy, how on earth can you tell just by a picture? (I know you're one of the Venerable Snake Breeders of Canada, but what kind of eagle eyes do you have to sex that boa? LOL )

[BoidKeeper]

Roy, how on earth can you tell just by a picture?
Been breeding them since 1986! He could probably tell even if all of the tail wasn't sitting on top of the wood chips.lol
Rosy boas are the same way, not quite as easy as KSB but close. There is a very noticible difference in tail size between the sexes.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Stockwell]

Originally posted by DragnDrop


Roy, how on earth can you tell just by a picture? (I know you're one of the Venerable Snake Breeders of Canada, but what kind of eagle eyes do you have to sex that boa? LOL )

Like Trevor said, I've seen hundreds of them.
When they are relatively thin like that one posted above it's easy to see the longer thicker tail which is characteristic of males. They also have a very uniform taper.
Females have shorter more abrupt tails.

Here, take a look at these pics I just took of a couple 6 month old Nuclear Kenyans...Can you see the difference??? The female is the top pic
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801kenyanfemale-med.jpg
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801kenyanmale-med.jpg


I'm sure if she looks, the spurs should be visible at the base of the tail as well.they'll be very small but they'll be there. Also a male trait

Now Hilde, why don't you ask me how I know the poster is female?? LOL :)

[Stockwell]

Here's a pic of the claw or spur found only on males.
sorry it's a bit out of focus, this is a small snake, but if you look in the middle of the picture you'll see a little bump that is reflecting the light a little bit... You'll only see those on males. Also evident is the thickness of the tail base and length of the tail, if you compare that to the female I posted above
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1801kenyanclaw-med.jpg

[Piers]

Yeah kenyans are pretty straightforward when it comes to sexing them and Roy has been doing it a long time.
Piers

[Tigergenesis]

Do males always have spurs and females never do?

The zoo where I volunteer as a KSB adult, but they don't know the sex. I was hoping to learn how to visually sex it for them. I hate not knowing.

[Stockwell]

Yes, adult males will have spurs that are somewhat mobile. You should be able to actually get a piece of paper, guitar pic of other thin flat item under them and be able to see them move a bit. Males do use these to scratch the females while courting.

Females may have "pits", little indentations, but you wont find real hard claws that you can get under.
If you print my pics and take them to the zoo you should be able to determine the gender of the snake. It really isn't too hard with this species.
Or take some pics of the tail and post them.

Now Eryx Johnii is a different situation all together...Those guys are very tough to sex visually in fact I wouldn't even try

[DragnDrop]

Originally posted by Stockwell
Like Trevor said, I've seen hundreds of them.
When they are relatively thin like that one posted above it's easy to see the longer thicker tail which is characteristic of males.

Now Hilde, why don't you ask me how I know the poster is female?? LOL :)

Okay, so it's not Ol' Eagle Eyes as much as a good monitor to display the pictures and tons of experience. I just didn't see anything in that picture that suggested gender to me, that's why I had to ask.

Oh... how do you know the poster is female? Would the name give it away? :)