Things You'll Need
- Assistant
- Probe
- Lubricant
Instructions
Have an assistant restrain your snake; this process will be quite agitating for it, although not harmful.
Lubricate the probe for entry into your snake's cloaca (the opening at the end of the tail). The probe's diameter needs to be roughly the same as a male's cloaca.
Press the probe as far as you can against the posterior wall. In a male, the probe will reach around 8 or 9 subcaudal scales down the tail. In a female, it will only reach 1 or 2 subcaudal scales down the tail. Subcaudal scales are the enlarged plates on the underside of your snake's tail. Do not use a probe that is too small as this could lead to inaccurate results.
Repeat the process, only press against the other side of the posterior wall to ensure you have investigated both sides and thus acquired the most accurate results. Females tend to have different lengths of hemipenial homologs whereas male hemipenes are of a similar length..