What do you guys think?

["Red-eye"_Matt]

This is quoted directly from a website and I was just wondering if there is any truth to it as it seems dangerous.

"A safer method of sexing juvenile snakes is the "popping" of the male hemipenes. The animal is held inverted in the left hand, with gentle finger pressure just forward of the cloaca. The ball of the right thumb is placed on the tail, about twenty scales behind the cloaca. The right thumb is then rolled forward toward the cloaca. This pressure on the tail will cause the hemipenes of the male snake to be everted."

Please let me know what you think.

Matt

[Zoe]

Like everything, it really depends. It is pretty easy to pop babies because their bones are still relatively pliable, and they don't posses the strength to hold their hemipenes. If done correctly, popping babies poses little to no danger. Same with probing. If you don't know what you're doing, it's easy to ram the probe in too far and hurt the baby. But if you do know, then it's safe.

However, for some snakes that are born very small (GTPs, ATBs) and delicate, popping is safer than probing.

It depends on the snake, and the person, but the quote is not incorrect.

["Red-eye"_Matt]

Thanks Zoe . . . I don't really know anything about sexing snakes and it just caught me off guard to read that. It still sounds like it would be dangerous but that is why these forums are so that people can learn these things.

Matt

[Zoe]

I recently learned how to pop babies (thanks nuno!) and it was pretty easy. Mind you it took me a while to realize WHAT to look for in a male. But now I can easily tell a female reproductive "hole" (lol) from the hemipenes.

I doubt I posses the strength to pop my bigger snakes - even nuno had a hard time with them.

Zoe

[nuno]

Matt, if you don't do it right you can hurt the snake badly, you can make it hemorage. Poping is usually for neonates to juveniles, The bigger snakes tend to have a lot more muscle in the tail area which makes it nearly impossibe to pop. Probing is the most acurate way to sex an adult or sub-adult. When you pop a male you will see the hemepenes evert but a female won't have that, it takes awhile to get comfortable with it. It's not hard to do...it's all in the technique, it took Zoe about 15min and she was sexing her babies in no time and with confidence and proper technique, even after you pop it's always a good idea to get a second opinion.


Nuno

["Red-eye"_Matt]

I don't have any intentions on trying it anytime soon. Believe me I saw some pics and it looked really freaky. I would DEFINATELY need someone to show me how long before I would feel comfortable with trying it myself. I would never be willing to take the risk of hurting a snake because of inexperience. But thanks for the info nuno . . . maybe if someone is thinking of trying it for the first time this post will convince them to get some instruction from someone who has a lot of experience with it so that they can do it right.

Matt

[eyespy]

I'm pretty wussy about popping myself but when somebody who has plenty of experience does it I feel it's pretty safe for a neonate snake. A probe in the wrong hands can do a lot more damage.