Sexing Green Tree Pythons
General Information:
I would like to begin by saying that if you do not intend to breed your animal (most keepers do not) there is simply no need to determine its sex and the animal would be much happier without the stress and possible danger of the procedure. If you do plan on breeding and need to know the sex of your green tree pythons, they should always be sexed by an experienced keeper and only once they have grown to a body weight of around 100 grams. Sexing smaller green tree pythons, even by experienced individuals, is simply too risky and should never be done.
Probing your GTP to Determine sex
Some species of snake can, and commonly are, sexed with a method called "popping." The popping method entails bending the tail back and applying pressure so as to "pop" the hemipenes out if the specimen is a male. Not only is this method less than accurate, it is extremely risky with green tree pythons and almost certain to result in spinal damage and a deformed (at best) animal. Under no circumstances should a green tree python be sexed by attempting to pop the hemipenes.
If you do have a genuine need to determine the sex of your green tree python(s), probing is the only method which I (or any breeder I am aware of) would recommend. Again, I can not stress enough that attempting to sex a green tree python too young can have disasterous consequences. I recommend the animal be about 100 grams and if you are not well experienced at probing snakes you should enlist the help of someone who is. The risk of injury to delicate you chondros is simply too great to be worth the risk.
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