Determining the Sex

[mister]

I was wondering how you determine the sex of the boa? Are there different methods? You cant just look and see can you? Sorry, total newbie question, but it is important.

[Randy_T.]

the most reliable way to tell sex is to have the snake probed...you will want someone with experience to do it for you until you get the chance to observe it for a bit....also some people swear by the rub test, which if you can do it successfully you hold the snake with one hand and then you take the other hand and grasp (firmly but not tightly) around the snake with the thumb aligned with the cloaca (the opening for defecation/breeding etc) and run your thumb down the underside of the tail pressing slightly with your thumb.. If you feel 2 lumps pass underneath your thumb then it is a male.

Good luck with it. Later Randy T. :'(

[mister]

Do you know how Jeff does it with his boas?

[diablo]

Its not easy at all, you have to get a kit they usually run about 30 bucks then you have to read over it for along time to get it down if you are not expierenced you can dammage the snake horribly, so i leave it up to the vet....if its a baby you dont even have to probe theres somthing else you can do

[UnFazedSlim]

My advice is to call around your area and find a reliable herp vet.  They will have the experiance with probing various snake species.  The general rule of thumb is that males will allow the probe in a lot further than the females. (The probe is a metal rod that is inserted into the cloaka of the snake, males have two hemipenes on either side of the opening, and females have two (for lack of a better word) tubes on either side.)  In short the males inverted hemipenes is longer than the females opening, and therefore the probe will go further into a male than it will into a female.  Don't quote me on this, but I believe the male will probe out at 5-7 subcaudual scales, and the female at 3-4.

~Slim  :'( :-*

[mister]

Thanks for all the help.

[bcijoe]

Hey Mister, I believe Jeff pops his babies. 'Popping' is the term for this method, which is not recommended by most, especially for novices. If you get it right, it's not bad at all, but if you don't you can damage your snake.

The 'rub test' mentioned above is probably the easiest, safest method, but not the most accurate.
I just shipped out TWO 'males' that turned out to be females !!
I did the rub thing and was very sure they were males...
Going to go back to probing everything to be 100% sure.

There's another post somewhere around here, I think posted by Gomez, talking and describing sexing methods, probing, and where to buy this too.

Also, another 'visual' method, deffinately not the most accurate way, is that males typically have visibly larger spurs than females do. These are little things that look like a cats claw/nail, and there is one on either side of the cloaca. The males will be visible, up to the size of a cats claw. On the female, you sometimes don't see them at all, or else they are quite small.

and if i'm correct, males typically have longer tails (after cloaca), females shorter..

hope this helped!
take care, Joe