Tail Advice Needed: Male/Female?

I know what I bought this adult snake as 2 years ago, but I am having some serious doubts about it.

So please tell me what you think it might be based on the tail picture below, and I'll fill you in afterwards as to what I bought it as and what makes me want to rethink it's gender.

And to all of those who know about this snake in my collection, please try to refrain from letting the "quoted gender" leak out.



Btw, I do apologize for the pic. It's hard to get a picture of a white snake. And especially moreso when you're home by yourself. So the snake is wrapped around a doorknob while I pull it's tail down straight. If you need more clarification of the vent, I'll be happy to provide you with an edited picture with an arrow.

Hmm... That's a close one. It could be because of the downward angle but I'd go with female. It is kind of thick for a female, but a bit thinner than most of my guys. I'd put it in with an ovulating female and see if anything everts.
Here are some girl/boy pics to compare against.

It does taper but there seems to be kind of a contoured bulge just after the cloaca. I agree with Carol. Tough call. I say male.

It looks male to me. This coming after I brought my '04 "male" out tonight and am fretting over the "female" look of the tail. So my guess may be totally wrong.

Bad angle of a shot but I would definitely say it looks male to me.

Hard to tell at that angle and it looks like a tweener.

The tail does taper gradually instead of staying the same thickness from the vent down to 13-15 scales like many males, so I'd say it looks like a big-tailed female to me, but I never trust tail sexing in my snakes.

What's up?

*deep breath*

Well..I bought this snake in May 2002 as a potential mate for Hecate. So that would mean I bought it as a male. I loved the colors in the ad and thought it'd be a nice compliment to test out Anery with Hecate.

Fast forward to May 2003, I'd just found Hecate in March outside after her 8 month hide-and-seek adventure and I thought she was ovulating. So I placed her in with Frost to see. Nothing. Frost just curled up in a ball to get away from the other crawling snake. I pondered and placed Hecate in with Diablo to see what his reaction was, and before I could even really grab her they were hooked up. Looked like it was destined for them that year.

Fast forward to 2004, Hecate was ovulating again and thought I'd try out Frost once more. Maybe he was shy the first time and didn't have a clue what he was put on Earth for. So I place her in there, same reaction as the previous year. A tie for a bump on a log. So I think for a second and recall reading where adding in another male usually sparks a reluctant male to action. I placed Diablo in and after everting his hemipenes, he went straight for Frost and start to do the "Wiggle Dance". I think nothing of it, "just snakes asserting their dominance like female dogs can do"...until Diablo tries to lock up with Frost and I think..."oh no...no gay snakes in my collection" and break up the party. I remove Frost and Diablo eventually courts Hecate to indicate her willingness. But Orion was to fertilize any eggs that year, which he did.

After her first clutch, I placed her with Frost again..and still nothing. I place her back with Orion, and they immediately lock up. So I was just about to make plans for someone to knit me a rainbow colored snake sweater for Frost for the winter.

Then just here recently, I'd noticed Frost plumping up in the usual spots a female would. And I hadn't fed him anything bigger than a couple of hopper mice 12 days ago (waiting for next batch to grow) and I knew it wasn't fecal matter as he'd done a big dooper a few days ago. So I lay him down on the floor and let him crawl across my hand as I gently squeeze and lo and behold...is that what I think those are? Feels like pearls on a string. None of my other males have ever had anything remotely feeling like that.

I test Frost out with Diablo and Orion, but both are in the depths of blue phase right now and aren't interested in food let alone sex. So I think around and figure one of my 2002 males might be mature enough to let me know if my hunch is right. So I pick Kingsford my charcoal and stuff Frost in his container. After a few tongue flickers my hunch is confirmed and the dance begins.

Frost just lays there and lets little ole Kingsford do his thing. And trust me, everyone is small compared to Frost.



Sometimes they say proof is in the pudding, well I don't know what kind of pudding this may be...but here the proof be:





So this clears up a LOT of questions I've had since I've owned him/her. Mainly the fact of bulking up every spring no matter how much or little I've fed.

Just goes to show you, always confirm the decision after buying the snake, don't take anyone's word for granted. Everyone can make mistakes.

Update: The proof "pudding":

WOO HOO, ten points for Hurley and I! BTW, that was such a nice touch showing us the pudding. I really enjoyed it as I was sipping a glass of wine. LOL.

I have got a question! I have a 1.3 group of multi hets (anery, amel and caramel). I decided to pair up the 0.2 with an amel het caramel and anery. The 0.2 do the "jerky dance" and the amel ignores them (at least I haven't seen any breeding). My anery male when placed with the 0.2 also does the "jerky dance" with the girls (I removed him after the display). The 1.0 multi het when placed with the 0.2 does the "jerky dance" with them too (I removed him after the display).

Now, what is wrong with these snakes? All have been probed and confirmed their sex. Do females do the "jerky dance"???

I've only seen my females do the "jerky dance" when they're touched, slithered upon, or danced upon. They don't seem to do it when a male is just placed in and they smell him.

There usually has to be physical contact for them to jerk, which to me is like they're being tickled or touched and they try to remove the thing annoying them. Like a dog jerks their coat when a bug is crawling on them.