sexing
A frequently asked questions of not so experienced snake-keepers concern the sex of their animals. Do I have the possibility to breed and what sex does a mating-partner for my snake need to have? Usually you will have to trust in what the salesman tells you and quite often will be surprised by strange things that are going on in your terrarium. Either there is no mating at all after a successful winter-hibernation or all the sudden you find a dozen of small "worms" in your terrarium although you are sure you have bought two male snakes... To prevent this from happening it is very useful to have some knowledge about sexing snakes and the different methods there are.
In the following I will describe several methods and tell you my personal view about them. Of course you will find snake-keeper that have totally different opinions what sexing is concerned.
Probing:
The best know method of sex-determination is probing. Therefore a little probe is inserted into the animal's vent. Depending on how deep it can be inserted you can tell the snake's sex. If the snake is male you will be able to insert the probe relatively deeply in the hemipenis pocket. At a lower insertion-depth it is most probably a female. For a correct determination it is best to have comparisons with other snakes like siblings or animals of the same species.
The risks of the method are obvious: If you are unexperienced it can easily come to injuries of the sexual organs. A lost of ... mating-ability or even death could be the results. And even if you are an experienced snake-keeper you might still make mistakes. Therefore I think that this method should not be used - it is way too risky as that I would want to have it done on my animals.
Popping:
Another possbility for sex determination is called "popping". This method is often done on juvenile snakes because they don't have total control over the muscles around their cloaca and can easily be manipulated by hand. To pop a snake you have to massage with slight pressure from the beginning of the tale towards the cloaca - if the snake is male you will eventually see the two hemipenis come out.
Like probing this method has certain risks to it. On the one hand the snake can be hurt and on the other hand it means great stress for the animal. That is why disapprove of it.
Visual examination of secondary sex-characteristics:
For sex determination I prefer looking at the secondary sex-characterisitics. With increasing age of the snake you can tell with near 100% security what sex the animal has. From my own experience I would say that you can tell a snake's sex with great probability when it is about 12-16 weeks old. More experienced snake-keepers might be able to tell before then, but I would not rely on that! My last buy of juvenile snakes shows why: I bought four three-weeks old sirtalis sirtalis. The breeder told me that it would probably be three 0,1 and one 1,0. Looking at the snakes' size compared to the rest of their siblings I agreed with her assumption, else I would not have bought them. Today I know that I have bought three 1,0 and one 0,1. I was told that this might happend and I was aware of the risk but not many breeders admit that they are not able to identify a snake's sex at the time of the sale.
- scales
A somewhat unknown method is counting the scales. This takes quite a bit of time and patience and the results are not always correct. It can be helpful though, as an additional confirmation. What you have to do is to devide the number of ventral or belly scales by the number of subcaudals.
I for my part have not dealt with this method yet but in different literature and discussion forums I had to see that the results often are not correct.
Now the characteristics I prefer that enable you to differentiate between the sexes:
It is easiest to tell a snake's sex when you have the possibility to compare it to others. Of course you don't have to buy a second snake now, just go to a reptile store or a breeder and look at the snakes' most important characterisitcs. You should take a closer look at the head, the area around the cloaca, the tail and the snake's size.
- size of the head
One characteristic that allows differentiation is the head: Females often have a much bigger head than males.
- length of the tail
The area around the cloaca together with the lenght of the tail usually gives the most clear indication to the sex, no matter the age of the snake. On the cloaca is the tail-line. If the tail narrows clearly in this place and if the tail is relatively short the animal is most probably female. If the tail only narrows gradually and is relatively long it is most likely a male snake.
- area around the cloaca
Males have another characteristic which can be seen when looking from above on the area directly behind the cloaca: Due to the existance of the hemipenes there is a small curve that females don't have. To see this you will need some practice and/or good eyes! But once you know what to look for this indication can hardly be overseen and allows a clear determination. At young snakes these "bumps" are not fully developed.
- size of the animal
If you have a grown up animal the size alone already tells you the sex. (From the time they are about one year old you can see from their size what sex they are.) Female snakes often are much bigger and stronger than males. If the snake is juvenile you will need at least one sibling or an animal that was born around the same time to obtail useful hints. Often the bigger snakes are female but that is not always true as you can see from my example above.
When looking at all the visual indications you can make the right statement on the snake's sex with great probability.
