Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello me again , question time i'd guess , uh ? After being suspicious about the rate of growth of my eastern garters , i now have a question concerning their sex. I have two of them , tought i don't know what's their sex and the information i have concerning such is very contradictory. Is said that : females grow bigger and have shorter tails.

Well...i have one who has a gigantic appetite , who as grow much bigger and larger than the other...but...however...he has definitively the longer tail...the other one always had a smaller appetite , and is small...but has a much shorter tail ( all proportions kept to his body )...so what's the deal !? The smaller one has had an injury when he was young , getting his tail cut in something and breaking off a ( very very ) small part of...could it be whil growing the fact his tail was hurt change the shape of his tail and he would be the male with a "handicapped " tail normally longer ?!

The long/short tail thing is a proportional thing in regards to body size. Males have longer tails because they have hemipenes in the area near the cloaca. You can sometimes see this in the tail as there may be a small bulge before the tail tapers off. This bulge is from the hemipenes. Since the females do not have hemipenes, generally their tailes are much shorter in relation to their body size. Sometimes this method is reliable, sometimes it isn't. I can tell fairly often with it, but I have a lot of experience with it. But even I am wrong sometimes. As for the method with size, sometimes it is obvious, sometimes it isn't. If I were you, I would just take the snakes to an experienced herper/breeder/vet and get them probed. That is just the easiest way to tell and is the most reliable method as well. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry