Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anybody know if the flower at the end of the hemipenes is present when the animal is still a young adult, or not yet sexually mature?
Can the flower develop later on, as the monitor matures,or if its a definate male, will it be there from the very begining.

thanks Bob

As a young adult the flowered end is there. Seeing a full eversion is sometime very tricky, partial eversions can full you. The problem comes when females evert and it appears as a partial eversion. Young monitors evert alot more than adults.

I have only one, first hand example to go by, but my 5+ft Albig has been everting 'something' ever since the day I got him last March at 28" or so. I even asked Frank about in on here, but there were still doubts as to the sex, as I had no pictures and wasn't really seeing much flowering at all.
Five minutes ago, I heard my Albig making a comotion, so looked in on him. He'd just gone potty and was going back to his enclosure, everting fully all the way. This is the first time I've actually got a clear view of full eversion from him, in a while. Not only was/were the hemipenes much much bigger, but the flowered ends were very much more developed. Unbelievable- wish I could've go a pic!

I've taken a dozen baby Argus and Ackies and attempted to "pop" them as very young animals. It showed me nothing except quite a bit of skat in my face.

SHvar is right that as young ADULTS things change down there - at "puberty". But by then, you can see the bulges very clearly and don't need to attempt to force the organs out.

There's an Aussie Herp Vet who's putting out a book claiming an easy way to sex baby monitors, but he's being a &$# and not telling anyone even a hint about his supposed technique. He's going to get torched if his 'technique' is a load of crap in order to sell a book. I can tell you that much.

Since I have been into varanids, there have been lots of people saying "they" have a way. One day, one may.

The problem with a method is, it only takes a few failures to ruin a method.

The truth is, most individual monitors are easily sexed. The problem is, some are not. The other problem is, what exactly is a baby monitor? one day, one month, one year, two years. Some people think a two year old is still a baby. Back in the old sonogram and X-ray days, they said they could sex baby monitors, I asked how old and they said a year or two. Hmmmmmm By then, we are on another generation.

Today is not much different then the past, a little better, but not much. It really does not matter what sex any individual monitor is. The reason is, what sex they are is not the limiting factor in varanid reproduction. Poor husbandry is.

For us, we make no effort in sexing monitors and we always have both sexes. Hmmmmmmmmmm So I would rather dwell on other things then buying a book to sex monitors. Good on him. Cheers