Ohhh James, that's bad!
Kitkat, Very interesting and cool about the scale count. Also, your snake looks like it was probably only minutes away from taking a poop in that picture! The area right in front of the vent looks artificially swollen. My first guess would be female, but I'm afraid the eminent "dump" is distorting the body shape. Would you mind posting another picture from the same point-of-view? Course, that would involve taking another snake picture, which I know is something none of us like very much
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Rick