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Popping new babies...questions...

Gralena

Gralena

Corn Snake Diva
Ok...so I have prepared and researched for months for breeding my clutch of cornsnakes. I now have 20 healthy, beautiful hatchlings. Sooo....now I have to figure out what sex they are so eventually I can sell them. I have watched various popping videos, including the famous Kathy (whom I have even seen do it in person once)....and I thought it looked pretty simple.

BUT...I either really, really suck at popping, OR I have 20 females. lol. I'm sure that is not probable but no matter what I do (or my husband who has tried) we can not get one to pop "male". We are doing the roll the thumb technique...we have tried at verious starting points from the end of tail to cloaca. Most of the babies pee/poop a bit and then it is just a mound sticking up, no little hemipenes??!!

I have a couple known male corns but they are 1 year old and about 60g, so I assume to big to practice on.

Are they too little? When do you pop hatchlings? Please help :)
 
Push a little bit more towards the cloaca once you're done rolling. Once you get the mound, your almost there! Roll just a teeny bit farther, and you should have hemipenes popping out if it's male.
I just did it for the first time yesterday after watching numerous videos and whatnot, and it really is pretty easy. Just don't put TOO much pressure on 'em.
 
Thanks Robbie...I will give it a go again tomorrow. I am probably not using quite enough pressure...they are just so tiny it makes me nervous! Did yours all pee on you too? :)
 
Gralena said:
Thanks Robbie...I will give it a go again tomorrow. I am probably not using quite enough pressure...they are just so tiny it makes me nervous! Did yours all pee on you too? :)
Click to expand...

Almost every single one. LOL. ESPECIALLY the males! I think they were trying to musk me, though, not pee. :D Cute little babies with attitude!
 
Haha...my daughter kept saying the ones that were really peeing MUST be boys! But yeah, they are musking (it just sounds cuter to say pee) ;)
 
I usually pop them before they get their first meal, but after their first shed. I don't like to handle them when in shed if I can avoid it.

Most people start too close to the cloaca. Since you have tried all different starting places, it must be the amount of pressure, or the rolling technique.

If you don't figure it out by Daytona, just bring them to the get together on Sat. night (you are coming, right? You're so close now!) and I will be happy to help you figure it out in person.
 
I first practiced on a known male to get the technique down. Not sure if that's an option in your case, but it really worked for me when I first learned. Can't remember off hand your clutch morphs, but if you have any Snows or Amels, you can sometimes see the hemipenes in the tail.

D80
 
Agree with Kathy (but I'd be crazy not too right?), my first experience popping, I was starting too close at first. When I backed down the tail a bit it started working.
 
"I first practiced on a known male to get the technique down..."

That is EXACTLY what I tell people to do - if they have one. And when I demo it in person on their own babies, I always advise them to practice, first on some of the males, about once per week until they find it really easy. Then I advise them to practice both popping and probing on females as well as the males, so they get to feel the difference between the sexes. Then they will really have it down for the next clutch.
 
Thanks everyone!! I appreciate the tips...unfortunately I do not have any known males that are small enough to pop safely, so that is not an option for me. However, I am going to try again after 1st sheds and see if I can get a better feel for it. I watched a few more videos and maybe I was still trying too close to the cloaca and also with not enough pressure.

Kathy - as for Daytona, I am hoping to get to come but since my work is in retail, we have so many back to school promos going on I'm not sure I will be allowed to have the weekend off. :( But crossing my fingers anyway...
 
Oh, and I did try to shine a light through some of the baby amels...what am I looking for with the hemipenes? 2 red lines from cloaca to end of tail?
 
Yes, candling sometimes works. It is just a little purple spot, not really very elongated. I assume it is where the greatest number of blood vessels come together and are the most visible. Sometimes you can see the spot on both sides, sometimes one side, and sometimes you just can't see it at all.

After a lot of practice of gently "tapping" the area below the cloaca , you can also start to differentiate the "bony" feel of a female, compared to the "bouncy" feel of a male. The hemipene feels like little elastic bags below the skin past the cloaca ("bouncy"), and the female just feels like a little muscle on top of bone (kind of "hard"). But it is more accurate to pop than to go by that rather general description of how it feels.

Sure hope you can come at least one of the days. You are so close that it seems such a shame to miss it.
 
Haha. After reading this topic last night, I decided to give popping a shot with 8 of my 11 babies... Assuming I'm doing things right and my crappy eyes weren't fooling me into seeing hemipenes/no hemipenes, I only have 2 males so far... Lol. In other words, I feel your pain, Gralena. =)
 
Well...it's official, thanks to all of your help my family has become successful poppers!! We sat down tonight and my hubby was able to pop our first male. So I took a turn, as did my son and got a feel for it. It actually was SO much easier than I thought. We definitely were originally doing it too close to the cloaca. The rolling technique worked great starting further down...and as Robbie suggested a little push forward at the end past your roll.

So..the final tally: 11 males, 9 females. We plan to wait a week or so and re-pop the girls just to make sure they are indeed girls.

THANK YOU so much to everyone!! I am so glad to have great herpers to get advice from!
 
Congratulations! I'm so glad what I said made sense. LOL.
Isn't it a great feeling when you do it right? I was so happy when I did it the first time! :D
 
congrats on your new found skill! It sounds like you have some good help too! I always label the males right away and try a couple more times on seperate occasions with the females just to make sure. But TBH once you get the hang of it, the males will usually pop on the first try.
 
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