Sexing Condros

[Corallus]

I know this is a tricky subject, but I would still like to know whether anyone can accurately determine the sex of Condros. I have 3. All supposedly males, but the two are yearlings, and the other one is 3 months. The guy I bought it from claims to have someone probe them.
As far as I know it is virtually impossible to sex condros that young. What do you guys say?

[anygiven60]

I personally, and I'm sure others will agree, sexing chondros at a young age, anything UNDER a year is just nonsense... They come out with kinked tails and bodies and it just not right at all to put a snake through that... I won't sex mine until it's atleast a year and half in age and has a good bit of body mass to it... The snakes health means more to me than knowing it's sex... It's not THAT important unless you are going to breed, if thats the case WAIT! There's absolutly NO need to sex a chondro under a year of age...

[Clownfishie]

Chondros CAN be sexed that young -- but that doesn't mean that they SHOULD be. It's very dangerous for them (as anygiven mentioned), and while it's often not apparent until they're older, it quite often causes spinal damage. So -- if he says that they're all males, they probably are -- just keep your fingers crossed that nothing bad happened when he sexed them. After a year of age, it's safer to sex them... the older the better though.

[Corallus]

Guys, I agree with you. I told this guy not to sex them, because of the consequences. I also told him that I am going to be very upset if something has happened to their reporoductive systems. The only reason I took them is that here in South Africa they are extreamly hard to find, so you take what you can get and hope for the best.
Thaks for your opinions guys

[greg schroeder]

Tail shape behind the vent, at any age, can provide an indication of what sex the snakes are. Males will have less of a taper toward the tail from the vent. This is because this is were the hemipenis reside. Females will taper sooner. This isn't a 100% accurate way to sex, but it can give a good clue.

Here's a thread from MVF with some pictures and stuff to think about.
http://pub95.ezboard.com/fmoreliaviridisfrm1.showMessage?topicID=72.topic

For the pictured near full term dead hatchlings in the above thread link, I have not dissect them to determine sex(yet), but I'll probably try some day. Hopefully they aren't to small to mechanically determine sex.