Reptile & Amphibian Forums

man, i tried sexing z today and it looks like he's a male. actually, it's pretty obvious. the other day though when he thought i wasn't looking he was arm waving. i read that females do this. so...of course i'm confused.
oh, and it was the first time i had ever witnessed arm waving. i was standing around the corner with my hand over my mouth trying not to laugh. he/she looked like a little ballerina perched up on his rock. omg...it was cute. i love these little things.
so....do JUST females arm wave?

amy

No, arm waving is a sign of submission. As a male matures they tend to stop doing it and females keep on doing it.

Joel R

submission huh? okay.
z is all by himself in his cage. would he still be acting submissive anyway???

Maybe he saw his reflection... or maybe he was just practicing... or maybe he is intimidated by your wallpaper... or maybe it's his dream to be a ballerina and you shouldn't laugh.
(if he could see you, he very well could have been arm waving to you. mine won't arm wave or head bob, he's boring.)

My beardie never hand waves..he has bobbed his head once or twice...

seen some babies at the local petstore arm waving...poor little things are on sand too...and they do eat it! Saw one 'taste' the ground in that way alot of dragons do and of course wound up getting sand on her little wet tongue...I don't think it liked the sand to much. If they weren't so bloody over priced for normals I would buy them all up. Then again that would just encourage the petstore to get more in to torture..sigh...

Some dragons can be tricky to tell the sex of. And some just act like the oppisite sex. I had this huge female , over 600 grams, she acted like a he. And she was a proven breeder too. She would head bob and bully the male she was in with. She would also bully the other two females and take the best basking spots. So I gave her back to the previous owners and now my male is breeding the other females. I have two little males that i just got that are housed together and both arm wave. They can see my other dragons, and do this to be submisive. When I got my first dragon, about six years ago, I thought she was a he. She would turn her throat pitch black, and the books all say only males do that. Well I got eggs and babies out of her so she definitly wasnt a boy. I guess the point is you can never truely judge the sex of a dragon by the way it acts. Weither it be arm waving, head bobing,or black throat. The only true way to tell is by the hemipenes and pores. You probably arleady know this but oh well. Hope this helps someone