Worm parasites are often present in the gut where most do little harm. They are detected by fecal examinations and killed with commercial wormers. A snake's sex can be determined in several ways. This is the most reliable, but it should only be done by an experienced person. In this method, a metal probe is slipped through the vent to check for the presence of a hemipenis, the male copulatory organ.
Every male has two hemipenes in the base of the tail.
A simple visual examination of the tail's length and thickness. The hemipenes make the tails of males longer and thicker than the tails of females of the same size. When looked at from the side, male tails are generally half as thick at the middle as at the base. Female tails are usually half as thick a quarter of the tail's length from the base. While learning, look at adult snakes of known sex before trying it on juveniles and adults of unknown sex.