Sexing Tricolor Hognose

Hey everybody! Have some baby tricolors that I am trying to figure out gender for, but they’re so SMALL! I’ve done some internet searching, and have found plenty of pages about sexing Western Hognose (including the fact that probing and popping can actually hurt them). Does the short, stubby tail for females and longer, slimmer tale for males apply to Tricolors too? I want to hold back a pair (or trio!), but I don’t know which ones to hold. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Sure I would say post some pictures of the tail bases so we can give it a shot.

From my knowledge, tricolors can’t be reliably tail sexed like westerns can. They have to be probe sexed.

I was told this by the breeder I purchased my tricolor girl, after posting in a Facebook group asking the same question about tail sexing.

Hopefully that helps!

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Thanks! I’ll try to get some posted in the morning.

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They will still need to me probed though

In typical Tricolor fashion, my sweet girl dropped 4 clutches from one pairing. I think I’ll see what people’s best guess is on these first few (and re-home them as unsexed but best guess) and then hold back from the second clutch that isn’t big enough to re-home yet. Someone mentioned Rare Genetics in another thread and I can’t wait for the second clutch’s second shed!

Oh yeah, Rare Genetics is something I’ve heard of as well so that might work!

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I would check with Ben before you send sheds in. Some species do not behave well under his tests.

Have you tried popping them? I often find babies pop really really easily

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Here are tail photos for them (yes, I know I skipped #4).

I don’t consider myself experienced enough to try popping them, especially since these little guys weigh about 10g.

@t_h_wyman - I’m definitely going to call Ben before I send anything. The third clutch should hatch in the next couple weeks, and the second clutch is due for a shed. I’m hoping I can send them all together!

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I popped all my baby Oligodon and the largest of them might have been 7g

It is perfectly possible to prove 10g babies if you have a small enough probe. We do it all the time with sand boas

Wanna come over? We’ll throw something on the grill and everything. Lol! Seriously, I don’t want to hurt them. And both of our local reptile stores offer gender check services, but the last time we took one of our animals to them we got 2 different answers. And it makes me uncomfortable that they wouldn’t let us be present while they were doing it. For the health and safety of the animals, we’d rather re-home them as unsexed than take any chances.

I guess that depends on where you live LOL

I understand the trepidation to not pop tiny animals and I am not necessarily saying you have to do it. More just observing that it is possible to do