Not again . . . but yes . . . ? regarding sexing by tail shape

I hate to bring this up again, but I can't find anywhere how old a snake needs to be before you can reasonably guess the sex by the shape of the tail. It's my understanding that it's not the least accurate unless the snake is sexually mature, is that correct? But then I read posts where snakes less than 1 year old attempt mating soooooo . . . that leaves me wondering if I should be concerned by what I am seeing. 3 of my snakes were probed prior to purchase, and 1 was popped, so you'd think I'd be pretty sure on the sex, but every time I look at my male's tails they look short and to me my female's look really long. I have thought it is interesting that I see that with all 4 of my babies . . . perhaps I am just scrutinizing their tails too much?!? :shrugs: Still haven't worked up the guts to apply enough pressure to pop them, I am seriously considering breaking down and getting some probes. If you all think that at their ages (they are all 2004's ranging in length from 15" to 18") you could tell by their tails I'd be glad to post some pics, just to see what you all think.

It is difficult to tell from tail shape at that age and from what I understand, hard to pop at that size. I think that if the tail remains wide for 4 or 5 scale lengths past the vent before tapering, it is a male.
Probing is the most accurate method from what I've read, but I know the snakes don't like it and if not done correctly, can hurt the snake.

Ah well . . .

At this point it doesn't really make any difference, except that I am curious, so I'll just wait til they get bigger and see if their tail shapes change to reflect what sex I was told each is. I don't especially want to drag them into a pet shop to have them probed (again), I've seen it done several times now so I'd just as soon do it myself if it comes to that. So for now it will remain a mystery if my snakes were sexed wrong or if I'm just freaking out . . . LOL Thanks for your input!

This may sound silly, but if you have the patience, supposedly you can count ventral scales on snakes over 18 months say. Count the ventral scales, then the sub cauduals(counting each pair as one) and subtract them from the ventral count. If the answer is more than 154 it is a female, the further away from154 you are the better.
And yes, I put my reading glasses on and tried this on known sexed snakes and it was correct 4 out of 4. I don't think this is reliable and can't remember where I saw it first but, what the heck :shrugs: