Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was hoping someone (FR maybe?) could help me with sexing a pair of my ackies. They are 11 months old as of today, 17 inches long and 110 grams each. They have been raised together and they've grown at the same rate since hatching. I have never witnessed any copulation between them, and both are somewhat flighty if I reach into the enclosure, unless I'm bringing food. I've enclosed pictures of their heads, bodies, and tailbases. In this post are pictures of ackie #1, in the following will be those of #2. I believe they are 0.2. Thanks!

n/p

First off, don't put any stock in what I'm about to say, I'm just learning, or trying to learn, how to sex monitors. I've got a losing record of sexing monitors, but I'm determined to improve it.

To me, they both appear to be of the same sex, males.

Have a good one!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Well gosh I hope you're wrong about them both being males!! I agree that they are the same sex but they've been very difficult to sex. The breeder I bought them from saw them a month ago and believes they're female but agreed that they still appear fairly ambiguous. I've included pictures of a third, which is now 5 months olds and 13 inches. Hopefully it's old enough to sex. Hoping for lots of opinions on the three, it would be of great help to me!

Evelyn,
Please remember the first thing I said in my first reply, "First off, don't put any stock in what I'm about to say,... I've got a losing record of sexing monitors,..."

I feel bad that I might've caused you any unnecessary thoughts, concerns and wish I hadn't posted my thoughts. Given that 3rd one I'd have to say that I was wrong, that 1 & 2 are females and 3 male.

By all means, believe the breeder over me as I've never even bred any as of yet.

What am I basing my thoughts on? Who knows? LOL! Nah, in the first 2 I concentrated on the base of the tail and I think I might've been thrown off by the curve caused by the way the tail was bent, more to one side. In the 3rd one I noticed that the area directly after the vent appears to be bulged outwards, and I went back & reviewed the first 2 and noticed that the same area on them appears to be flat, the same level as before the vent.

I thought for sure that someone that KNOWS would've posted by now, but I reckon that's what I get for tryin' to think.

Check out this thread? > forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1375517,1375517

Please accept for my apology if I have caused you any stress or anything, I am truly sorry and think I learned another lesson. I'll go crawl back under my rock now.

Best wishes with the group!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

No worries at all!! I appreciate any assistance I can get and you were very clear about the fact that you were not by any means certain. I'm really hoping FR or one of the other forum experts will come by and post, I mean...the two older ackies are the size of some full grown adults out there and I'm hoping a more experienced keeper than myself will be able to tell their sexes with ease. I've been told that ackies are capable of breeding at only 11-12 inches so in theory all three should be sexable by this point.
You don't need to apologize, you didn't cause me any concern and I'm very much in the same boat when it comes to being able to sex these animals.

A couple of things, First, have patience. Second, monitors do not mature at a set rate. They mature based on many things, LIKE YOUR CONDITIONS and Their own impact on eachother. You may want to understand this, the leading expert in breeding monitors(self admitted in court) said it takes 8 years for ackies to reach sexual maturity. So now you have a range of 11 months to 8 years. Yours are still well within normal.

Yes, I have had an ackie lay at 11 inches TL. But it was a yellow ackie, not a red, and yours are reds. And it was one extreme out of many many hundred individuals. Not something you should expect with THREE individuals and from newbie care(not that your bad or anything).

The reality is, your animals look great. You paid the band, now you should listen to the music. All you can do is wait it out.

The thing about red ackies is, SOME females have huge spurs. But they are soft compared to a males.

Lastly sexing a young monitor over the internet is silly and only for fun. Its nothing to do with reality. So my guess is, you have one male. at least, maybe, or not, or 2 or a female, or not, or three, or not, or 2.1 or 1.2., or 3.0 or 0.3., Don't forget the possibility of he/shes or she/hes. Hey I bet I got it right. Please just have fun and wait.

For sexing correctly over the internet, an individual monitor MUST DISPLAY a huge degree of ONE or more characteristics. If that does not occur, then we go back to being silly and having fun. Cheers

Well then we've made some stunning deductions and I've had my fun with it. I guess I was just getting ahead of myself and anxious to figure out what sexes they are because my yellows were accurately sexed at this size. I'm still learning my way through this stuff and that the sexability is different for every individual monitor.

The husbandry- I want to make that jump to excellent care and I feel like it's improved dramatically in the last year. Those three reds I've gotten have grown relatively well (compared to a pair of yellows I raised last year), and I've encountered no problems at all with them, which is also different from the pair of yellows. I know it's only three monitors but I feel like I'm at the point where I'm able to raise a monitor to adulthood and maintain its health. I'm starting to wonder about their sexes because the next step for a keeper would be to see their monitors breed. I've raised them and I'm thinking ahead to taking a shot at introducing them to a proven male I've got this spring if they are indeed female. I'm also wondering about the sexes because my pair of yellows attempted to mate since they were six months old, but I've never witnessed that with the reds. Thanks for the wisdom, I need to make use of it and have a little patience!

First, your husbandry understanding will of course increase with time and success/failures.

As I said, yours look great. But not I going to have to put some doubt in your mind. All sexes will mount eachother at all ages. Even the day the hatch. That has not one thing to do with what sex they are. So that information is not a gauge as to what sex they are. You cannot confirm sex, until you hatch some eggs. Only a female lays eggs. A male can fertilize them. But in rare occasions, that is also not necessary. Eggs only mean you have a female. After that its dicey.

So until you have seen an individual lay eggs, its not a female. If you have a good hatch rate, you also have a male. But if you do not, it does not mean you do not have a male.(parthno reproduction raises its ugly head)

Not to scare you but to keep monitors alive, on a scale of 1 to 50 is a ONE. To raise them in some normal manner is a two. That leaves 48 more levels of all manner of odd things that may or may not pop up and effect your level of success.

One of those numbers is, DO NOT MESS WITH GROUPS UNLESS you have too. I would never place a young female with a "known" male if they were not raised together, and in particularly if one is kept solitarily. Of course, if you have to, you have to. But do not do so because you are not sure. MAKE SURE, you know what sexes they are. You see, doing that can cause all manner of problems you simply do not have to deal with(easy to avoid). Raise your group, be patient and wait until you know what sex they are.

You see, its impatience that causes most to fail, not because they do not understand some magic husbandry trick. Monitors are easy, unless you screw with them.(sadly most screw with them) Cheers.