What is this?

[Mack&Cass]

We noticed something unusual on the shed of our corn. We purchased it as a female, and "she" is approaching 5 feet in length.
The picture is of the vent.
We aren't sure what we are seeing

We hope this doesn't indicate that it is a male. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance

 

[snakemaster1]

My guess is that this cornsnake is indeed a male looks like the shed of hemipenes there. This used to be a way of determining the gender of snakes many years ago one blood spot on the shed at the vent female two spots male.

 

[Mack&Cass]

We were worried that they were hemipenes. I wasn't aware that they shed them.
Mackenzie

 

[Tleilaxu]

I was not aware that they bled from that area as they shed or shed their reproductive organs, I have seen nothing of the like on my snakes, I have one male, and two females.

 

[SeventyThree]

They look very shallow like the scent glands found on females, but I can't figure out why they'd be red. Believe me, the hemipenis' (hemipeni?) are much longer than that.

 

[Mack&Cass]

Yeah, on another board (ReptilesCanada) there were people who had similar things happen, and apparently sometimes snakes are rough on themselves during shed, and a bit of blood is normal. As long as she isn't bleeding after the shed, it should be fine.

Mackenzie tried popping her tonight and nothing came out, so we're pretty sure she's female. Just wanted to make sure. We didn't think they shed their hemipenes, and our male corn everted his once and like you said, SeventyThree, they were a lot longer.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Cass

 

[codykrr]

popping is usually best on baby snakes. have you tried to probe it?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Could they be sperm plugs?

-Brad

 

[Mack&Cass]

Yeah we got nowhere popping her.I'm afraid to probe her, but we might try that tonight.

Brad...someone else suggested sperm plugs on another forum, too. I really think she's female, her tail is short and stubby in comparison to our male's. I know that's not definitive, but I'll try to see if I can convince Mackenzie to probe her...he's uncomfortable with doing it because neither of us have done it before and we don't want to hurt her. He has a dissecting kit with probes in it. We'll try that tonight, after I do some research on how to probe properly.

Cass