Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can you probe or pop monitors? I was under the impression you couldn't, but there is a green tree ad tat said that the monitor was bought as a female but they haven't probed or poped it. Can this be done or does this seller not know what he is talking about?
Thanks, Steven

Sorry abot that spelling, I was trying to rush

> Can you probe or pop monitors? I was under the impression
> you couldn't, but there is a green tree ad tat said that
> the monitor was bought as a female but they haven't probed
> or poped it. Can this be done or does this seller not know
> what he is talking about?

Technically, you can probe or try to pop them. However, the results are about as good as random guessing. So far as I am aware, the only reliable way to sex a monitor is to let it grow up. The males will be larger and burlier than the relatively slender females. By about mid-adolescence it is usually pretty obvious, especially if you have at least one of each sex for comparison.

Luke

Monitor lizards sex organs are very similar as babies/juveniles, so it's of no use in the first few months of life. As they mature, the male hemipenis gets very blood-rich and forms a cartilagenous (sometimes ossified "boney" ) structure called a hemibaculum. You can shine a light through the tails of some species and see an opacity (dark area) on males, feel this structure in some, or even have the lizard evert when you handle it (usually followed by dumping crap and urates on you) and get a peek at what's down there. Males at rest will have "bulges" you can see without any physical torture. To physically shove a metal tool into the sheath of a Monitor Lizard's hemipenis or hemiclitoris is inconclusive. You can't count scale depths like in snakes as the lengths aren't that constant and drastic from male to female. Some people will manually "pop" the organs out to inspect also, but these are things that should only be done by people who know what they're doing. The funny thing is, in adult or near-adult animals, you can tell if they're male or female just by looking at them in a cage. Unfortunately, the folks selling WC Monitors usually don't have much knowledge at all about these animals in reality, so you hear these "probing" comments often.