I've been wondering for a while now if popping is really that safe. When I took Chezza my corn snake in to the pet store to show the owner he picked her up and popped her. It looked painful to me because I'd never seen someone do it before but it was the way we found out that Chezza is a she.

I saw him pop snakes now a couple of times and it looks easy but I was wondering if it is that easy or should someone be trained to do it professionally?

I'm wanting to find out for sure if Tsume is a boy or not and Tooya my Amel corn. I hope they're boys because if they are girls I may have to rename them.

Does anyone have any info on popping, how to do it safely, if it is safe, if it is acurate? How do you even tell if it's a boy or a girl by doing this? Is it something that a person can do with limited training in the subject?

__________________
http://dragcave.net/user/manhirwen

With one exception every snake I have has been popped. Popping in safe IF the person doing it knows what they are doing. If there is someone experienced then they can teach you how to do it. I would not advise anyone to attempt to teach themselves how to do it. There is too great a chance of injuring the snake. Popping is usually done on hatchlings or young snakes. If it is a male the hemipenes will evert. Females do not have them. When they get older the muscles are more developed and the snake can prevent it. Then your only option is probing. Again something to be done ONLY by someone that knows what they are doing.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Popping is absolutely safe, but, as Merlin said, only if someone experienced is doing it. Someone with little or no experience in herps should never attempt to sex a reptile by any means as harm can be caused if not done properly.

You do not have to be trained as such, but you do need to be experienced. I would certainly not recommend that you try popping your own corn snakes if you are uncertain how to do it, nor would I describe how to do it - you need to be shown by an experienced person and practice under that person's guidance.

Popping is a good way to sex a young corn but with a little age and size probing is the better method used. Neither way is 100% accurate, but probing is a little more so, with the exception of Boids, where males can "tense" their area so that the probe will only go in so far and deceive the owner into thinking "he" is a "she"!

Why don't you ask the pet shop owner to demonstrate and guide you through how to "pop" your corns? Alternatively, if the corns are too old, you can ask him to probe if he knows how to do this safely.

On the other hand, while this isn't a thread about lizards, I do want to point out that these sexing methods, which are safe for snakes, should not be performed on lizards by any person experienced or not.

__________________
"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

http://drseward.com/New_Site/NWmonsterstore.htm Last item on the list is a video on how to safely pop and probe. It's about 15 minutes long but full of everything you need to know, in addition to some beautiful animals showed

__________________
~Jason Richardson

Herpboy - while I'm sure the video is very good (I haven't had chance to watch it i'm afraid), I do not think that it is appropriate to learn how to do something such as popping or probing from a video. It should only be practiced in the presence of an experienced person to ensure that no damage is done to the snake as it is very easy to perform this procedure incorrectly and cause irreversible harm to the animal.

__________________
"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

I agree with bitis....its really not worth injuring the animal just because you want to know if its a male or female..if its done by someone with experience then im all for it

Thank you all for you input, I have no intention to pop them myself unless I was trained to do so by someone who knows what they are doing and can teach me how do do this. The pet shop owner here in town knows how to pop and probe as far as I know, but I don't think I'd ever want to learn how to probe, well, not yet anyways. Mostly though I wanted to know if it is safe and pain free for that to be done to my snakes because it's more imlportant for them to be safe and comfortable than for me to know what gender they are.

__________________
http://dragcave.net/user/manhirwen

Aslong as its done by a experienced keeper or herp vet,its safe. Good luck

__________________
Jason

Ok, so I have learned how to pop a snake today. I even know what to look for, and it's really not even hard, at least not in my opinion. I was taught by the petshop owner and had him talk through it step by step and even tell me how much pressure and where and all of that good stuff. So in a few days after my corn has digested it's meal a little I shall try. I hope it's a boy!

__________________
http://dragcave.net/user/manhirwen

Has anyone found that popping is only 100% accurate for males and that sometimes that popped sexed "female" ends up being a male? I have been told that, for lack of a better term, "rolling" works for most boas although not for ETBs. This is where you slide your thumb back from the vent towards the tail where the hemipens would belocated, exerting slight pressure. If you feel something like a bee bee roll past your thumb ( not sure if I'm describing the technique correctly) it is a male.

Craig

__________________
Gems of the Rainforest