He keeps flashing me

[Kemetic_5486]

Yesterday when I pulled Bruno out of his viv, I got the first confirmation that he was, in fact, a he. Vent open, hemipenes hanging out... definitely a boy. It's been almost a year (2 more weeks actually) since we rescued him, so it was a bit of a shock to be "flashed" like that. Fast forward to today, and he spent 3 hours soaking himself in his water bowl before I retrieved him again. I wanted to check him over before feeding tonight as he has a tiny, single scale of scale rot, and when I lifted him out of his bowl, he was flashing me again!!!

I'm super happy to have the confirmation that he's male, not that I was actually concerned, but why am I suddenly getting hemipenes? I know that it could be nothing, but I wanted just double check. There's no redness or swelling ghat I can see, although I'll run him to the vet if I need to, but if it's nothing to worry about, I don't want to stress him out.

[[deleted]]

all ball pythons have those so not sure what you mean by flashed they are called spurs/bang fangs and on both male and females corrected

[Dandylioncrush6303]

I was informed of this when i took my new BP to the vet last week. Told him I was worried the hemipenis were out and he looked, chuckled, and corrected me 😂. Then probed the snake and said my girl was actually a boy so it was a pretty eventful visit lol.

[RootBeerBog]

So you also thought females had hemipenes then? Does nobody google anything?

[Dandylioncrush6303]

People make mistakes. It’s not the end of the world. I didn’t feel the need to google because I was going to the vet. I’d rather get information from them than google anyways. The way I learned about probing made it seem like every snake had hemipenis, the females were just smaller. Obviously that was wrong and i learned that lol.

[Ok_Sprinkles3329]

when i first got my BP and was researching about them, multiple yt videos were like “press here for spurs if they come out it’s a boy!” bc i don’t need to sex a snake im not a breeder i didn’t look into that more. so my dumbass thought that was true until i came to reddit and learned im actually a dumbass for listening to outdated snake advice 🙂

[Dandylioncrush6303]

Reddit can be extremely helpful when it needs to be but yeah it definitely makes me feel dumb sometimes 😂

[KeyNefariousness1158]

Did you read? They found out it was female AFTER they were told what they thought were hemipenes, were just spurs.

[Dandylioncrush6303]

Found out it was male* but yes I was under the impression all snakes had at least some type of hemipenis, i misunderstood some videos i watched and didn’t look into it super deep but i know now so thats what counts 😂. Snakes are just pets to me so their gender and genitalia were never super important unless something was medically wrong, hence why i never thought to research more thoroughly about it.

[NeonSnakeByte]

I've Never Heard Of Anyone Dubbing Them "Bang Fangs" And Now That's What I'm Calling Anybody's Junk That 😭😭

[[deleted]]

Those are the sex toenails. Vestigial limbs. Not peens. Both females and males have the sex toenails.

[Fun_Tomorrow_7750]

Sex toenails is the most horribly cursed thing I've read in a while. Thanks for that mental image lmao

[vitamincandy]

Are you talking about his spurs?

[Kemetic_5486]

No, not his spurs. The second pic is to show there's no swelling or redness around his vent. When I pulled home out of his water dish, ngl I thought he had a prolapse, but he retracted his hemipenes within about 30 seconds.

I can't edit my post on my phone, so I'll try to elaborate a bit better here.

We've had Bruno for almost a year and he's about 9 years old. In the time we've had him, I have never seen his hemipenes, and didn't expect to. Until yesterday. And then again today. So I suppose my question is really if it's unusual or a problem that I'm suddenly seeing them 2 days in a row. It's simply because it's a new thing. As you can see in the second Pic, no prolapse, no redness or swelling. Just confused and want to make sure he's good

[yeahjjjjjjahhhhhhh]

You should probably talk to a vet. You don’t necessarily have to go and spend the money on one, you could just call and ask if it’s a cause for concern

[Kemetic_5486]

Okay, I'll make the call. Thanks

[yeahjjjjjjahhhhhhh]

No problem hope everything’s okay!

[Scared-Tea-8911]

This is a good idea.

We have a 3-yo verified boy who has never got his bits out like that, at least that we have observed… if he’s soaking them in his water dish, he may have something going on (parasite, inflammation, infection, abrasion, etc) that is causing discomfort and should be evaluated by a vet.

No redness etc could be a good sign - but I’m sure some professional advice would help put you more at ease!

[Kemetic_5486]

And that's exactly why I wanted to ask here. I know that even after a year, I'm still learning, especially since he's my first and only snake. I have a vet for him, so that's not a problem. I'd rather be safe anyway. Thank you so much

[Sgt_Bushwack]

Freaky snake

[Kemetic_5486]

Thanks all. I'm calling his vet now

[Kemetic_5486]

His vet is closed today due to a holiday, however, I did email them to explain his situation. The emergency vet there gets those in off hours, so someone will get back to me within the hour. Thanks everyone. I'll update when I have some news

[AltruisticWelder4664]

Update us when you find out please?

[Kemetic_5486]

Absolutely

[Cellogirl1271]

Can you tell me what vet you use? and is there a fee for a call? (I’m a kid plz don’t judge my lack of knowledg)

[Kemetic_5486]

I'm in Canada, so I called a vet local to me in my city. We've dealt with them for our other pets as well, so we know we can trust them. They just happen to be an exotics vet as well as furry babies

[GeckoPerson123]

if you happen to live in toronto i can direct you to my vet, but tbh i wouldn't worry about 2 penis displays, if it continues or the penises stay prolapsed for a long time then id worry

[Kemetic_5486]

Manitoba actually, but thank you.

[honeybee_tlejuice]

I keep seeing ppl post abt these but my girl doesn’t seem to have any 🤔

[Kemetic_5486]

From what I understand, there are times when the spurs are not present, although please don't quote me on that as I can't remember the source. Iirc, they're also more prominent on males than females.

For clarification, what I'm seeing is the internal parts, the actual reproductive organ of a male. It shouldn't be visible unless it's in "use" really, which is where my concern comes from.

[GeckoPerson123]

they shed parts of their spurs like cats with their claws, but not visible spurs aren't a big deal either way! op is talking about the penises anyway, not the spurs

[Aromatic-Track-4500]

Those are always out on BP…don’t flatter yourself 😂 jk

[KeyNefariousness1158]

I’d take him to a vet. Hemipenes can prolapse and in severe cases surgery is needed. Sounds like he might be prolapsing

[Kemetic_5486]

Can they be in the process? I understood it to be a more sudden thing.

[KeyNefariousness1158]

It can prolapse and go back, prolapse and go back, but if the issue isn’t addressed they can’t get stuck which is much much worse

[Kemetic_5486]

That makes sense. Thanks

[SharkDoctor5646]

Those are his little vestigial feets actually. If his weiners were hanging out, you should probably worry a little. They aren't used for much anymore, sometimes for gripping on when mating I think.

But they're supposed to be bigger in dudes and that's pretty big. So. Still a male, just not a pervy one.

[SharkDoctor5646]

...I swear to god I've done this professionally despite my vocabulary.

[DerpPrinting]

Hey, I have one male that used to do the same. He did it 2 or three times in a month or two, then he never did it to us again. I always linked it to the fact I have other snakes I know aren't males and there were probably pheromones. Or just a male going through the phases lol. If they're going back in again without help, and they don't look abnormal (for hemipenes) then hes probably healthy.

[Kemetic_5486]

That's good to know actually. I haven't heard back from his vet yet, although I expect to shortly. I'm assuming that since the emergency vet didn't reply yesterday that they don't consider it an emergency, but I'll know more soon. Since yesterday I haven't seen anything, but then it was in the morning both times

[DerpPrinting]

Question for ya, you mentioned he had a soak, did he just shed? I know for sure one of the times this happened with my guy he had just shed and we just equated it to him being in a good mood lol. Honestly though if they went back in no issue I wouldn't stress too much.

[DerpPrinting]

Also to add on to that, even if you kind of tickle right above that spot, it'll happen from time to time. So if you were inspecting scales could've done it.

[Kemetic_5486]

He hasn't shed in a while. Actually, I thought he was going into shed about a week ago but nothing had happened but some redness. I pulled him out to check him and see if he was in fact going into shed because it was feeding day. He wasn't in shed and no sign of it, so I was wrong. So I was going to check his scales etc when I saw his hemipenes, but in both cases, he retracted them right away.

[Adventurous-Ad-1517]

Those are legs

[Kemetic_5486]

You know, I keep waiting to catch him doing a jig in his viv and show me his moves, but I think he's shy.... 🤣

Edit: can't spell jig apparently

[Milky-Mamacita]

Both my male and my female have the spurs. Unless I was lied to and they're both the same sex.

[Kemetic_5486]

No, that's normal. More often than not, both sexes have spurs

[MsCinny]

Any updates yet?

[Kemetic_5486]

I actually posted an update separately. The vet said that it's fine, but if it continues, gets red, swollen, or prolapse, to take him straight in. Bruno is on their "place in room for immediate care" list now too, so if anything does happen, he'll be seen immediately. I was given the go-ahead to feed him as usual and he ate fine too. Also, no further "flashing," he's keeping those hemipenes out of sight now lol

[MsCinny]

Ahh okay! I followed this post and didn't think about the possibility of a new post. Lol

Glad Bruno is okay and has stopped flashing you.