Please Welcome Worm!

**snakemama** · 06-11-2012, 09:07 PM

Bob took a new picture for me today. Talk about nice color coming in, wowza!

**Bonny** · 06-12-2012, 06:38 AM

Worm definitely is a beauty. What a change from the first pictures to now.

**snakemama** · 06-14-2012, 10:29 PM

A couple more new ones today.

I can't wait to see her in person...

**Scooter's Mom** · 06-18-2012, 08:29 PM

I know you're referring to Worm as "her" - have you & the breeder done testing (?) to determine gender? Is that even possible?
How DO you determine gender?

The colors on Worm are very striking! (No pun intended! lol)

**Karen** · 06-18-2012, 08:39 PM

Wow, her coloring is getting even prettier!

**snakemama** · 06-18-2012, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Scooter's Mom

I know you're referring to Worm as "her" - have you & the breeder done testing (?) to determine gender? Is that even possible?
How DO you determine gender?

The colors on Worm are very striking! (No pun intended! lol)

When the babies are very small, you can "pop" them by bending the tail back gently and pressing on their body right where their tail starts. If it's a boy, the "boy parts" will pop out. Bob has popped her twice, and he's going to double-check with a probe before he sends her out. You can take a small lubricated metal probe and insert it into their vent (ouch!). In a female, the probe will not got very far in (maybe 1-3 scales down), but on a male the probe will go down up to 15 scales. You can hurt a baby snake doing this, I'm way too chicken to try any probing with mine. Probing is more accurate than popping though, and once the snake is too big to pop it's the best option.

Here's a picture I found from cornutopia.com (Kathy Love's website, she's a cornsnake guru!) that illustrates probing really well!