"Popping"Carpets???

[Terranaut]

Is this something I can learn from youtube and try without hurting my little guys/gals ? I know its always best to learn stuff like this from a mentor but I don't know anyone near me who could show me how.
Unless someone close is willing to demonstrate for me ? :)
But seriously has anyone here learned how to do it on their own?

[mykee]

There really isn't much of a fear of injuring the snakes with popping as there is with probing. The only issue that I can see happening if you aren't familiar with popping is not using enough pressure and getting a false female count.

[Bubbleguns]

I know that many reptile stores around me will help people with "sexing" their reptiles. The only exotic store that I know is around Kitchener is I believe called Global Exotic, although I cannot comment on the store itself, I have never actually been there. I stick around Toronto/Scarborough area for all of my snake/lizard/frog needs. I'm just posting that incase you have a fear of doing it on your own.

[Terranaut]

There really isn't much of a fear of injuring the snakes with popping as there is with probing. The only issue that I can see happening if you aren't familiar with popping is not using enough pressure and getting a false female count.

Really? Maybe I will jusy go for it then


I know that many reptile stores around me will help people with "sexing" their reptiles. The only exotic store that I know is around Kitchener is I believe called Global Exotic, although I cannot comment on the store itself, I have never actually been there. I stick around Toronto/Scarborough area for all of my snake/lizard/frog needs. I'm just posting that incase you have a fear of doing it on your own.

Rob (Global Exotics) is a gecko guy and really a snake guy. He can't help me.

[Coffee Black]

Anthony caponetto has a good how-to on his website.

[Terranaut]

BTW, how did the popping go?

Lol. Not so good. These guys are so small and fiesty and smooth I couldn't get it happen. First one latched on to my hand and started constricting my finger. Doesn't hurt but trying to manipulate the snake while its trying to kill you is stressfull for both me and the poor little guy. His vent scale is only about an 1/8 wide and I couldn't even get him pinched between my finger and thumb. Not breeding these guys so I can wait to find out. If I had done it a min or 2 after they left the egg I may have succeeded but not worth the stress to continue.

But....

I must learn this and couldn't fully accept the failure so I went downstairs and grabbed my royal, flipped him over and to my shock had absolutely no problem expressing his hemipene or his junk as my kids called it. Did it a couple times to get a feel for it so I can do it again. Thanks for the advice on just doing it. Super easy as long as the snake isn't a freak.

[shaunyboy]

i personally would NOT pop a carpet over 6 months old

cheers shaun

[CDN_Blood]

i personally would NOT pop a carpet over 6 months old

Agreed, and I wouldn't even go that far. Ideally, they'd hatch and stay in their hatch container for a few days, be popped and then go directly into their new containment. I probably wouldn't even try popping after more than a couple of weeks old even though they don't have full muscle control yet. Better safe than sorry because popping anything older than a few weeks *can* cause damage if they have already gained good muscle control.

[Terranaut]

Good to know. Thanks guys. Wish I would have done it right away. Maybe I will try again tomorrow. Still I don't want to stress them to much.