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Deaks1457
Snake Mite
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
 Posted - 19/04/2014 : 10:51:56
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Hi guys,
I'm have my first Corn Snake and have done a lot of research before buying. My Snake is approximately 14 inches long and about 5 to 6 mm in diameter and I'm wondering what age He or She is?
Which leads me to my next question. I've seen videos on how to sex your snake by gently rolling your thumbs to bring out there penis but believe my snake is too small and don't want to cause any harm. Is there any other ways of telling the sex of my snake?
Deaks |
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Razee
Fully Grown Corn
United Kingdom
2525 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 12:29:02
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Hi Deaks, you've made the right decision not to try to pop ( it's called popping ) your snake. It should only done by someone trained to do it, otherwise quite a lot of harm can be done. Popping is only done in very young hatchlings, before they develop a good control of their muscles. Later, they can hold the hemipenis in, so would falsely pop as a "girl ". I know at least two shops, where even experienced breeders prefer not to pop baby corn snakes, exactly because of the possible damage.
It's best to wait, until the snake is a bit bigger, and then have it probed - many good pet shops will do this for you for free, or a small fee. :-)
There are other methods - the length of the tail, and once they're mature, the shape of the tail - but it's not 100%. Bazilishka, my female, has a very long tail - in fact, her tail is only 1 scale shorter than the male's. I thought she was a male for ages, but once adult, she had a different shape to her tail. I had her probed, and she did probe as a female :-)
Regarding the age - it's really, really difficult to guess an age of hatchling from its size and weight. Even siblings from the same clutch, eating exactly the same food, can grow at completely different rates. Also, some baby snakes are difficult to start feeding, so they might be only half the size of others. I think there's a nice thread on here somewhere by Silverwings, showing the different sizes of her hatchlings, all the same age. :-)
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0.1.0 late CB10 Carolina corn snake - Bazilishka
1.0.0 CB11 Abbots Okeetee- Little Twiddler
1.0.0 CB11 Hypo corn- Sebastianek
1.0.0. CB14 Butter Motley - Squidwood
0.0.2 CB18 normal/ Okeetee yearlings Bunny and Lalalishka
0.0.1 hognose
0.1.0 stable cat
0.1.0 house cat |
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Redware
Hatchling
United Kingdom
412 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 12:33:00
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Hi
Snakes are difficult to judge just by there size as they all grow at different rates, but at that size I would guess it is no more than a few month old at most. the weight and a photo of it may help!
I would advise you against trying to sex your own snake as if "poping" (the process you describe above) is not done properly it can really damage your snake. This process is normally done on small snakes but should only be attempted by those who really know what they are doing.
Do you need to know the sex of your snake? If so a snake breeder or the vet may be able to do this for you to check. If not you may be happy just knowing you have a happy healthy snake.
When snakes are older they can be probed, so if you want to know in the future then you can always find out this way.
Hope that helps.
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Corns: 1.2.0 Caramel Tessera Het Stripe ph lots (Oak) Caramel (Willow) Caramel Stripe Het Amel (Juniper)
Royals: 1:1:0 Lesser Pastel (Bismuth) Cinna Spin (Indium) |
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Redware
Hatchling
United Kingdom
412 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 12:35:02
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| Hehe Razee got there first but you can see its the same advice! |
Corns: 1.2.0 Caramel Tessera Het Stripe ph lots (Oak) Caramel (Willow) Caramel Stripe Het Amel (Juniper)
Royals: 1:1:0 Lesser Pastel (Bismuth) Cinna Spin (Indium) |
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Razee
Fully Grown Corn
United Kingdom
2525 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 12:41:13
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Found the thread I was talking about, here's the link - but I'm useless with computers, so don't know if it would work:
http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31165
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0.1.0 late CB10 Carolina corn snake - Bazilishka
1.0.0 CB11 Abbots Okeetee- Little Twiddler
1.0.0 CB11 Hypo corn- Sebastianek
1.0.0. CB14 Butter Motley - Squidwood
0.0.2 CB18 normal/ Okeetee yearlings Bunny and Lalalishka
0.0.1 hognose
0.1.0 stable cat
0.1.0 house cat |
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Deaks1457
Snake Mite
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 12:56:09
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Guys thank you so so much for your advice, I appreciate both of your help sooo much so again thank you!!!
I really won't attempt Popping as I genuinely love my new snake Sydney and want to care for him/her as best as possible as does my 6 year old girl. We called him/her Sydney as it is both a male and female name hehe!!
I want to put up some pictures of Sydney but I can't figure out how to do it off my iphone?
Thanks again Redware and Razee!!!
Deaks |
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Razee
Fully Grown Corn
United Kingdom
2525 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 13:34:42
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He he, Redware and me are both replying at the same time :-)
No probs, Deaks - and ask as many questions, as you like :-) This forum is really nice, an has helped me ( and is still helping me ) a lot!
I post pics via Photobucket ( though it seems to be playing up just now )...there's a sticky in " corn snake photos " section.
Sydney the snake, nice name :-) |
0.1.0 late CB10 Carolina corn snake - Bazilishka
1.0.0 CB11 Abbots Okeetee- Little Twiddler
1.0.0 CB11 Hypo corn- Sebastianek
1.0.0. CB14 Butter Motley - Squidwood
0.0.2 CB18 normal/ Okeetee yearlings Bunny and Lalalishka
0.0.1 hognose
0.1.0 stable cat
0.1.0 house cat |
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Deaks1457
Snake Mite
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 14:36:18
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I've got it and have posted a picture of Sydney in the Introductions forum!
Thanks for all of your help!!
Deaks |
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SilverWings
Yearling
United Kingdom
740 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 15:11:02
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| A nice trick to try with an amel is to shine a light through the tail. If it is still young it will be fairly see-through, so you should be able to see a longish red mark below the vent if the snake is male, or a small red splodge if it's female. |
2.2.3 Corn snakes; Red, Rosie, Liana, Checkers, Luna, Diego, Snowman
1.0 Taiwanese Beauty Snake; Aleron
1.0 Green Anoles; Doug
1.0 Greyhound; Lee |
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Deaks1457
Snake Mite
United Kingdom
46 Posts |
Posted - 19/04/2014 : 15:20:23
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That's a great idea!! Thank you SilverWings!!! I'll defo be giving that a try!
Deaks |
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Kellog
the nice one
United Kingdom
7308 Posts |
Posted - 22/04/2014 : 08:41:23
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Unsurprisingly you've been given great advice Alan  . Personally I've chosen not to get any of mine sexed as I'm aware of the stress the journey would cause them and the dangers if the probing isn't done properly. The one snake I did get probed, because I took it into the reptile shop for another reason, I was told was a male. A few months later 'he' laid infertile eggs! No sexing technique is 100% accurate and my attitude is that as long as you aren't planning on breeding (or cohabiting which I hope you're not!) then the sex doesn't really matter.
As has been said it's virtually impossible to work out a snake's age from its size. Even snakes born from the same clutch and fed the same will grow at different rates. This thread demonstrates it really well - http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28426
My female is only just over 3', despite being 6yrs old, because of not being kept properly before I got her  . Unfortunately by then the damage was done and she's remained a little snake.
Hope that's of some help.
Xxx
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Age and Sex
