Differences Between Male and Female Ball Pythons

Snake owners will almost always want to know if their snake is male or female especially if they want to breed them. It’s hard to tell a ball python’s gender just by looking at them since both male and female ball pythons’ sex organs are inside their body.

A couple of ways to determine whether a ball python is male or female is through popping their hemipenes or probing. 

Before we go into how to check a ball python’s gender let’s look at some of the physical differences between both male and female ball pythons. 

Physical differences between males and females

A huge physical difference between a male and female ball python is their size as adults. 

Ball python females will grow as much as 1 foot larger than their male counterparts.

Even though female ball pythons generally grow larger than male ball pythons, it’s not a solid identifier for a ball python’s sex. 

Ball pythons have some physical differences between males and females. These differences are called sexual dimorphisms. 

The physical differences are nearly impossible to identify in young ball pythons but are more obvious in adult ball pythons. 

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00430.x 

Bergman, J. (2019). Snake ‘Vestigial Legs’ Debunked. Creation-Evolution Headlines, September, 1.

Hoefer, S., Robinson, N. J., & Pinou, T. (2021). Size matters: Sexual dimorphism in the pelvic spurs of the Bahamian Boa (Chilabothrus strigilatus strigilatus). Herpetology Notes, 14, 201-203. https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-herpetology/volume-39/issue-2/111-02N/Sex-Differences-in-Body-Size-and-Ectoparasite-Load-in-the/10.1670/111-02N.short?tab=ArticleLink

Leal, F., & Cohn, M. J. (2015). Development of hemipenes in the ball python snake Python regius. Sexual Development, 9(1), 6-20.

http://www.evodevo.net/uploads/1/8/1/3/18132731/leal_python.pdf

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