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palpating to sex adult snakes

ashleynicole

ashleynicole

New member
So I was browsing another forum and saw a very intense discussion where one person asked about sexing an adult corn snake by palpating. The person was flamed for asking the question as no one on the forum had ever heard of such a thing.

The first two snakes I got were a normal corn and then a ball python. It wasn't until they were about 6 years old I took them to Glades Herp farm and had Rob MacInnes (co-owner at that time) sex them just by palpating the hemipenes and it was easily obvious when they showed me a few different males and females. So obviously it is a possible way to sex and seems more accurate than just looking at tale shape.

So what are thoughts and opinions on this method? I have five adults in my collection now and can easily distinguish the males and females this way, and some have now successfully mated so I'm fairly confident in their accuracy.

Open for discussion... [emoji56]
 
It is possible, but not as reliable. Some are better at it than others. From what I have been told, it is typically easier on the thicker/squishier snakes like BP's.
I find probing more reliable on adult snakes.
 
Ball python breeders do this with their adult pythons, and I have done it myself with balls. But I don't like doing it with corns. It just seems to require a lot of pressure to me. And you can't be completely sure when it seems to be a female. With some experience, you can visually sex adult corns. But it is so easy and accurate to probe that it doesn't seem worthwhile to do anything else.
 
Obviously probing is considered by most to be the most accurate way for adult snakes, but ive read even that can give false results if you perforate a female or don't advance far enough in a male..and then there are those male/female organs that may just he a bit bigger or smaller than normal and cause ambiguity.

I think the most definitive method is breeding. Then you know for sure ;)
 
One should not probe an animal until they are trained how to do it properly. If done properly, the likelyhood of injuring the animal is pretty low.

Breeding can be one way, but you don't want to be breeding snakes just to verify the sex of the animals.

Although, here have been cases where same sex snakes go through mating motions, so that isn't 100% necessarily.
 
Well I would assume the only reason you would need to be 100% sure is for breeding purposes. And I was never reccomending anyone to probe a snake without being appropriately trained? However causing damage is a risk factor.
 
And I said breeding is most definitive. By breeding I mean mating that results in viable eggs and then live babies, not just mating patterns.
 
My point was that when properly trained, the risk for injury is very low.
I'm sorry if that was misunderstood.

Yes, once a male and a female have been paired, and produce viable babies, they are considered "proven".
However, you want to know the sexes of the animals before you try breeding, and among the various forms of sexing adults, the most accurate way is by probing.
 
Ah see I still have much to learn about the appropriate terminology. "Proven" male or female means they've successfully bred then?
 
So I suppose you could surmise thay all of these methods are useful in determining the sex of a snake. Seems to be recognized that pribing is the most accurate unless they've been "proven" which is definitive.
 
For me, the two methods useful for sexing are popping (hatchlings) and probing (adults).
I think visually tail sexing (on adults/young adults) would be more useful than physically palpating (specifically in Cornsnakes). There are some here who are very good at it. Once you recognize the differences, you can sex that way as well, but not always. There are snakes that can fool you on that one too.
 
Prior to probing sub-adult and adults I always give them a "soft pop" first to see if there are sperm plugs present. It eliminates the need to probe on occasion.
 
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