Ball python male or female?

[Virgil1972]

Have a ball python I got about 2 weeks ago and was wondering if anybody could tell me if it is a male or female, and if anybody can give me an estimate on age? I was told when I bought the python that it was male but just want to make sure. It is about 3 and a half feet long. I have read that you can tell by the size of their head but I don't have and experience in snake gender identification.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

Can you show the tail? Or the underside of the tail?

 

[Chameleon Mike]

The males will have spurs on either side of the anus and longer tails to lock on the female during mating.

 

[Virgil1972]

Can you show the tail? Or the underside of the tail?

Here are pics of the up side and underside of the tail.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

Looks like female. I think the tail should be longer. Unfortunately the only way to be sure is to probe it. Look it up on the net and you will see what I mean. Balls are hard to tell by looks.

 

[Virgil1972]

Looks like female. I think the tail should be longer. Unfortunately the only way to be sure is to probe it. Look it up on the net and you will see what I mean. Balls are hard to tell by looks.

I have heard of a few ways of doing that but it said non experienced people could hurt the animal.

 

[Chameleon Mike]

Yeah I wouldn't do it either. If you have a vet who deals with reptiles that would be your best bet. Or you can ask the person you got it from it was ever probed.

 

[guanagator]

Probe is only way to tell for sure, My girlfriends into them we have a small breeding group and I'll show her pics later when she gets off work. Do you have any idea of it's age? Could be a growing female but if it's an adult over 2yrs and has been fed regularly then likely a male, females tend to bigger once full size, 3000-4000g we have one that's 4200g and around 6ft while most of the males I see are 1500-2000g. It doesn't look like a young animal so you've probably got a male but till you prob you won't know. Luckily unlike chameleons zero difference in requirements for male vrs female, as a pet I would prefer the males they are more active and will even climb around if given the opportunities. The females we have tend to move only to regulate temps or feed.

 

[Virgil1972]

Probe is only way to tell for sure, My girlfriends into them we have a small breeding group and I'll show her pics later when she gets off work. Do you have any idea of it's age? Could be a growing female but if it's an adult over 2yrs and has been fed regularly then likely a male, females tend to bigger once full size, 3000-4000g we have one that's 4200g and around 6ft while most of the males I see are 1500-2000g. It doesn't look like a young animal so you've probably got a male but till you prob you won't know. Luckily unlike chameleons zero difference in requirements for male vrs female, as a pet I would prefer the males they are more active and will even climb around if given the opportunities. The females we have tend to move only to regulate temps or feed.

Mine is very active most nights. I got it from a local pet store. The owner of the pet store also runs a local reptile rescue and she told me the python was surrendered to her. A young boy had the snake and then became to busy with after school activities so he gave it to the pet store owner. I am not sure how old the snake is but was told that it is full grown.

 

[guanagator]

Probably a male then nice of you to give him a second home. I really enjoy taking out a couple of her males. They are smarter then given credit for, one of the males pokes his head out of his hide everytime we are in that room and just watches us till we leave or let him out to explore around.

 

[Virgil1972]

Probably a male then nice of you to give him a second home. I really enjoy taking out a couple of her males. They are smarter then given credit for, one of the males pokes his head out of his hide everytime we are in that room and just watches us till we leave or let him out to explore around.

I seen him and was like I have to have him. So I took the adoption application and begged my wife. Selling him to the wife was the hardest part. She does not like snakes at all. I had to sell him hard.

 

[guanagator]

Funny thing when I was a kid I could never convince my mother to allow a snake in the house... Lizards were always her compromise point. Now 20 years later I'm still fascinated by them both but it's more lizards I'm trying to sneak into the house while my girlfriend is into the ball pythons.

 

[Virgil1972]

Funny thing when I was a kid I could never convince my mother to allow a snake in the house... Lizards were always her compromise point. Now 20 years later I'm still fascinated by them both but it's more lizards I'm trying to sneak into the house while my girlfriend is into the ball pythons.

When I lived at home the most I got was an anole.

 

[guanagator]

@Virgil1972 She votes male 3-5yrs old. Here are some shots I snapped of ours last night. Hard to believe sometimes they are all the same species with the different genes. First is an adult female, you can see her girth and also took a vent tail shot.

Banana Fire Spider male. Love the patterning on this guy. Easy to see size difference between him and the big cinnamon girl above.

And a coupe of young females, the BEL is a Butter Mohave and the bottom pic is the only one that I picked out she's a leopard pastel het pied poss het clown. She has a few more I'll try and get some shots of soon my camera battery crapped out during spot cleaning last night.

 

[Virgil1972]

Thanks for the info.