Alright so, just found out today, that my purchased as Black Pastel Huffman female is, in fact, a male.
I bought her back in September of 2021, at probably 2 months old, from a very experienced and well respected (in fact, I’ve bought 3 snakes from this breeder in total)
Last year, I became suspicious when Toothless (said snake) never laid eggs last season. At the time of pairing, she weighed 1200 grams.
Since then, she never got any heavier than that. So today, I had my dad help me probe her (I’ve never been able to, as she hisses and flinches around) and sure enough, definitely a male!
Basically, I’m asking, do I contact the breeder or since it’s been 3 years, is that pointless to do?
Pictures of said snake, for tax as he is beautiful!
I mean, you could? But also, I’ve seen some say that it’s the buyers responsibility to ensure that they check sex upon receiving the animal. I think it’s a good practice to check the sex of any animal regardless of where/who it’s coming from. It’s unfortunate, but I doubt the breeder would do anything after 3 years. I’d just send them a note to let them know, potentially? Just don’t hold your breath expecting any recourse
I’m always worried about doing this. So I will double check any of my snakes that don’t pop as male with probing.
I will agree you should have checked when you received the snake. Regardless of how experienced a breeder is, sometimes accidents happen.
If you contact the breeder, I don’t really see them as being able to do much about it now obviously. But it at least gives them feedback.
It is the responsibility of both parties to confirm the animal is what it’s labeled as, three years on you’re probably not going to get much help. You can let them know, but I wouldn’t really expect anything, as Nathan and Christina have said.
I will say this, popping and probing can both be wrong. While less likely to be wrong with probing, I’d still consider a shed sexing test via RGI to confirm.
Actually, no offense @zer0stark7 … But that would be kinda of hilarious if it ended up that it was still a 1.1 pair and that’s why there wasn’t a big thrashing happening.
I did pair him with another male, and somehow, I never saw any fighting or anything?
I never saw compilation either, which was when my suspicion began.
That actually happened to me with the first pair of corn snakes I bred. Each snake was mis-sexed (both were from very reputable breeders), but luckily in a compatible way
They don’t always fight. And I actually had a male who, for a period of time, would only lock with another male, not with the females I placed him with. So I figured he was female, put him with another male and they fought. Eventually he bred to a female and I got a beautiful clutch
for that outcome!