What age is it good to "pop" a corn snake?

[CuriousHerping]

So I bought my first baby corn and he/she is a little cutey! The thing is since I'm new, I need some help to guide me! When is a good time to bring him/her to a vet to "Pop" them? (I don't trust myself doing it).

 

[bitsy]

As young as possible. It won't work once they get bigger.

 

[CuriousHerping]

How young Bitsy? This little one is about 12" long and thinner then a pencil. >_<

 

[bitsy]

Hatchling sized - yours sounds OK for it still but the bigger they get, the less accurate the result. After a while, I believe the male hemipenes resist the popping process and you tend to get "false female" results with older males. I've never tried it myself but hopefully someone with experience will be along shortly to advise.

 

[CuriousHerping]

Well I looked up a few youtube videos on "popping" and if I figured it out right, I have a little girl.

 

[Mark Dwight]

It won't work once they get bigger.

Why? Adult ball pythons are popped all the time. What is different about corn snakes? :shrugs:

 

[Camby]

Well I looked up a few youtube videos on "popping" and if I figured it out right, I have a little girl.

If the sex of the snake is important to you, I would get an experienced person to verify your sexing. The typical popping mistake made is sexing a baby as a female when it is in fact a male. If it isn't done properly, the hemipenis will not be seen. Sexing via popping is very easy once you learn, but it takes a bit to get used to to be sure it is done correctly.

Good luck and be very careful. If not performed correctly, you can cause severe damage to the hatchling, maybe even death.

dc

 

[bitsy]

Why? Adult ball pythons are popped all the time. What is different about corn snakes? :shrugs:

There must be a physiological difference which limits the usefulness of popping in Corns. Once they get past hatchling size, the usual sexing process is to probe.

 

[CuriousHerping]

If the sex of the snake is important to you, I would get an experienced person to verify your sexing. The typical popping mistake made is sexing a baby as a female when it is in fact a male. If it isn't done properly, the hemipenis will not be seen. Sexing via popping is very easy once you learn, but it takes a bit to get used to to be sure it is done correctly.

Good luck and be very careful. If not performed correctly, you can cause severe damage to the hatchling, maybe even death.

dc

Thank you for the warning my friend! I appreciate the advice!

 

[Mark Dwight]

There must be a physiological difference which limits the usefulness of popping in Corns. Once they get past hatchling size, the usual sexing process is to probe.

I've read many times that popping adult corns will harm them. But I thought this to be a myth because so many other species are popped as adults. I've seen adult ball, carpet and blood pythons popped (just check out youtube.) And at a show I saw a vender have no trouble popping a large milksnake. But, maybe corn snakes are just different.

 

[WingedSweetheart]

I think it's mostly dangerous for newbies who have no idea what they are doing.

Popping an older snake isn't really reliable because they have the ability to resist. Resulting in false females. Probing a bigger snake is more accurate in my opinion.

 

[BloodyBaroness]

Why? Adult ball pythons are popped all the time. What is different about corn snakes? :shrugs:

I've read many times that popping adult corns will harm them. But I thought this to be a myth because so many other species are popped as adults. I've seen adult ball, carpet and blood pythons popped (just check out youtube.) And at a show I saw a vender have no trouble popping a large milksnake. But, maybe corn snakes are just different.

It's physical differences in the way the genital areas are built in boids and colubrids.

"Popping" an adult ball python is easy. You NEVER try to invert the hemipenes, you just check for sperm plugs. If you have experience, it's easy. No one should ever try to do it unless you have a very skilled person teach you. That is the easiest way to do real damage to your snake.

That vendor that popped the milksnake should have never done that if the animal was an adult. You can cause a lot of damage to colubrids that way. Some vendors just don't give a rip though. It's much safer for a skilled hand to probe.

 

[Mark Dwight]

A cool popping vid. Here is a adult male Centralian carpet python being popped. I wish it was always this easy.

 

[CuriousHerping]

I think it's mostly dangerous for newbies who have no idea what they are doing.

Popping an older snake isn't really reliable because they have the ability to resist. Resulting in false females. Probing a bigger snake is more accurate in my opinion.

I watched a few videos on "popping" corn snakes and it was really simple. I don't think it was that hard to do as I said earlier in the post, I already did it. I do have huger snakes including a Burmese python that was pre-owned that I adopted and that I have probed. I do agree that probing is more accurate also in my opinion. Now that I have said this, I am new to corn snakes and I never have "popped" before but it isn't a giant deal if you learn to do it right.

 

[CuriousHerping]

A cool popping vid. Here is a adult male Centralian carpet python being popped. I wish it was always this easy.

That is a great sample video that I did watch after I posted this topic in the beginning. I hope others that have the same question as I did about "popping" will get to see this and it will help. Thank you for your Posts!