Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. The quest to sex Orion continues... I would have thought I could have figured it out by now (she's nine months!) but she keeps confusing me. Ok, here are the facts. Sorry I have no new pics to help you out. I'll do the best I can to describe...
1) She has a tiny bulge. Do females ever have a little bit of a bump there?
2) Her colours look pretty female when she's IN the cage. Browns and oranges. I have to say, she is gorgeous. She has flourescent orange down her stripe, and someitmes green cheecks. Sometimes her bars are also green. She has orange around her lips too. It's a really bright orange.
3) When she's OUT of the cage her back gets a slight blueness to it, and she has a little green in her bars. It's very subtle, and I am hoping after a few more sheds they will maybe brighten up.
4) when she is asleep, ever since her last shed, she is peach with light green bars. The colours are very vivid.
She is about six inches ntv.
Also, she was sick when I got her. I would say she is about 2-3 months behind in growing.
Any help you guys can give me would be great!
HOPEFULLY I'll have some pics up in the next few weeks. I know that will help a lot.
~Lindsay

Hi Lindsay,

We have many morphs of panthers: ambanja (blue bar, red bar, classic, and turquoise); tamatave; nosy be; sambava; etc. We have seen many females with extra colors - other than the classic salmon-orange with beige-brown bar variations.

Q.1: She has a tiny bulge. Do females ever have a little bit of a bump there?
A: Yes, females can have a small bump - a pucker, really, at the vent area.

Q.2: Her colours look pretty female when she's IN the cage. Browns and oranges. I have to say, she is gorgeous. She has flourescent orange down her stripe, and sometimes green cheecks. Sometimes her bars are also green. She has orange around her lips too. It's a really bright orange.
A: This is not unusual - we have one nosy female that varies from powder blue/charcoal to strawberry pink/maroon colors, and she always has blue on her cheeks. We have one female ambanja that my hubby bet was a male - but at one year old she finally turn receptive pink. Males don't show pink/salmon/brown.

Q.4: when she is asleep, ever since her last shed, she is peach with light green bars. The colours are very vivid.
A: We also have some females with greenish vert bars, peach body color - and highlight color specks on their cheeks (blue; lavender; turq). When agitated, if they turn to dk orange/dk brown, this is a good indication they are female.

I think it is safe to conclude that Orion is female.
Hope this helps.

Morgana - Reptayls, Ltd.

Thankyou!
Are there any clues I can look for to decide what morph she is? Will female colours vary a bit from morph to morph, or is it impossible to tell?

It is not impossible... but sometimes very difficult.
You know where she came from, right? Can you ask them for some idea?

A good picture would help. The shape of the head and body, and the patterns will sometimes give us a clue. But to be honest - there are always some that are hard to figure out.

Morgana - Reptayls, Ltd.

>>Thankyou!
>>Are there any clues I can look for to decide what morph she is? Will female colours vary a bit from morph to morph, or is it impossible to tell?

Thankyou for your help! I will try to get some shots of her with her different colours and her face and body... She has changed quit a bit in the last few weeks... hopefully we can figure it out!
Also, I will try and contact the store I got her from. They told me that the two that were together were both male blue bar ambanjas, but they also got some red bars in that day. I wonder if they just got the two mixed up?
I was thinking of getting a male and breeding them. I can't be sure of her morph, but I'm sure after seeing the offspring it can be figured out. Just like in biology class, lol. If Xx and xx make these... what is xx? lol. Hopefully that will work.
I know it's not always recomened to breed unknown locales, but once I know what she is I will get her a proper male and get the other male a matching female. She is beautiful, so I'm sure her babies will be great.
Thanks again for your help, it's very appreciated!
~Lindsay

Lindsay,

At least you know she is ambanja!
You can breed any ambanja to her and get great offspring - the red bars have lighter body color - the blue bars have nice green bodies with deeper blue bars - and the classics are a combination of all.

We have all the ambanja colors - so we can try to match her markings to ours for comparison. But it may still be hard to pinpoint. She is not really considered an "unknown" if you are sure she is ambanja....

Hope this helps,
Morgana

>>I will try to get some shots of her with her different colours and her face and body... She has changed quit a bit in the last few weeks... hopefully we can figure it out!

>>Thanks again for your help, it's very appreciated!
>>~Lindsay