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Popping baby corn snakes?

hypnoctopus

hypnoctopus

Olivia Barron
Staff member
I'm new to sexing baby corn snakes. I've seen it done in person, and I've watched Kathy Love's video. I've also practiced before on a few of my snakes that I know the sexes of (when they were small enough to do it safely).

My clutch of 16 hatched a few weeks ago, and although I've mostly been leaving them alone, I have attempted sexing maybe about 8-10 of them. I know that the most common error is thinking that you've sexed the snake as female and then it later turns out as a male, but so far all of the ones I've popped have appeared male to me. Obviously it is possible to get all males, but I don't think it's likely. I tried my best to get a picture of what I'm seeing to find out if you guys think it is actually a male or if I'm just seeing hemipenes where there aren't any.

Thanks!

rQH36Hgl.jpg


Here's a link to image if you want to see it larger: http://i.imgur.com/rQH36Hg.jpg

Sorry it's not very clear! It's SO hard to take a good photo of something so tiny and wiggly. :)
 
I don't see anything definitive. If it's a male, you will see one or two little "sticks," (not pyramids or mounds) pop out. They may be white or red.
 
I definitely could be doing it wrong! But it feels pretty natural when I do it and the snakes don't seem stressed or hurt by it.

Thanks for the pic, Damon. I know that's what it had looked like when I've seen it done on males, but I thought maybe because mine are so small and young that the little nubs in my pictures were just tiny hemipenes.

Are the little white nubs in my pictures scent glands then? I also wondered if maybe I'm not being firm enough and the hemipenes just aren't everting fully, which is why the nubs are small and white as opposed to longer and red.

I really appreciate all the input, so thank you everyone.
 
I usually need to start lower on the tail (towards the end) when I'm doing it wrong. If you're too high you're just pressuring them to stay put.

This video (specifically for ball pythons, but almost the same) explains it very well.

 
Okay, well I just popped the 8 babies that aren't digesting. With the exception of one, they all look like what's in the pictures. I couldn't really get anything out of the one different one.

I think it's quite unlikely that they're all the same gender, so I guess I'm just doing it wrong.
 
I rewatched Kathy's video before I did these 8 and I started lower on the tail than I had been before, but they still look the same. And I'm using quite a bit of pressure and slowly rolling my thumb forward (towards the cloaca).
 
If you don't see any obvious males in a good sized clutch, chances are that you are starting too close to the cloaca so that you are pressing down on the hemipenes instead of pushing them from behind.

I would suggest going back to a couple of your known male babies and repopping them. Carefully notice how far back you have to start. Then, on your unknown babies, start even further back than you think you should, using a rolling motion towards the cloaca. Once you get the first couple of hatchlings to pop, you will probably have no further problems.

Also, on amel (or any white bellies) babies, look carefully at the underside of the tail with a bright light. Males will often show a faint purplish or reddish streak on each side - the blood supply to the hemipenes. If you see any like that, practice on them because they are probably males.
 
Haha! You posted while I was writing! Do any have the purplish streaks under the tail when viewed in bright light?
 
When they first hatched, I tried the light trick and saw all sorts of things and nothing. I will retry that as well. I unfortunately don't have any known babies. My youngest snakes are 3 2013 girls and they're all well over 100 grams, so I wasn't sure if it was safe to practice on them.
 
You can also confirm with probing, even for hatchlings - if you have a baby probe. I probed over 1000 babies every year for quite a few years before popping became known and popular. Only then did I learn how to pop.
 
Once I learned to pop, I still probed all of the females for the next few hundred babies - until I very rarely found that a popped female turned out to be a probed male, lol! So if you don't already have a baby probe, I would suggest ordering one to confirm your popping.
 
I would also love to learn to probe and I've considered buying a probing kit before, but I'm worried that there's a higher chance of injuring a baby corn snake using that method if you're inexperienced.
 
I finally got a chance to watch that video and he explained it well. I just fed four of the babies tonight, which leaves me with four others to work with, but I think I'll give everyone a little break before I try again.
 
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