The kids are about a month and half old now, 5 and 6 inches long. Their baby stripes have given way to a more spotted pattern. And what's particularly startling is that the longer one has suddenly develped bright red bars on "her."

I haven't actually sexed them yet, mainly because I don't want to be flipping them over and squinting creepily at their tiny little ctotches until they're way, way more used to me. One's still skittish about being touched and sometimes won't even hand-feed, but the other one (the one that has the red) spontaneously took to playing on my hand and arm quite some time ago, so I'm just avoiding stress and letting their natural curosity take its course.

But anyway: does the red mean this one is a female? It's not on the sides where it would usually be; it's just around the front legs, both in front of them and behind/under them, but it is very red, not even reddish orange. Obviously she's too small to have any eggs, but is this just a thing that the girls do as they grow? Or do males sometimes get red patches too? Since I won't be rehoming them for a while I don't urgently need to know which is what, but if I can figure it out without actually bothering them, then I figure, hey, why not?
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
0.0.2 2009 Eastern Collared hatchlings

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