male of female?

[xerox]

Hi u all!

just have a basic question.. I have two corns, and the oldest is 9 months soon. i was told when i got it that it was very hard (if not impossible?) to tell which sex it was before it got older.. so, when can i tell? and most important, how do i see if it's a male of a female?

[Simon]

Well for hatchlings, it's not too hard. But please do remember that you should get an experienced herper that has done this before to show you how it is done. It's called 'popping' you pop the hemipenis out of the snake if it's a boy. You can't pop anything out of a gal. From an experienced herper, poping should be around 80% correct. But poping together with probing, should be at least 95% correct.
Remember both of these methods should be done with experienced herpers, unexperienced herpers doing this might have the possiblity of hurting the snake and making future breeding not possible.

Popping means putting a little bit of pressure at the end of the tail from bottom towards the vent. If its a male, the hemipenes should pop out. If it's a gal, nothing would happen (as in nothing should pop out, well.....hahah maybe poop would pop out.... ) Poping should only be done to hatchlings or at max yearling. Anything bigger than that might also lead to hurting the snake's reprodutive system....which will effect future breeding.

Probing is using tools to check if the snake is a male or female. The tools would go into the vent and if it could be in for around 8 scales it should be a male. 4-5 scales or less it should be a female.

Last warning.....remember to let an experience herper do this..... don't do it for fun when you are unexperienced......

Good luck and Happy Herping!