Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As I tend to my hatchlings everyday and watch them grow, I speculate about their gender, which made me wonder if anybody else did, too.
Has anybody out there successfully and accurately guessed the gender of their hatchling (without the benefit of knowing incubation temps), based on appearance, coloration, behavior or just plain intuition, and if so, how early on?
Stephanie

My first batch of babies are about a year away of being turned loose in the yard from the nursery set-up I have to protect them. So far the only color on all is yellow so I'm hoping that all are not females. My babies have gulf coast mothers and father is a cross probably half gulf coast and some eastern or 3-toed thrown in. I find in interesting to see how much growth takes place during hibernation with nothing going in to support physical growth. Mary Beth

I think it is pretty much impossible.

I think so too... I just wondered if anyone had taken a wild guess and turned out to be right.
Stephanie

Nah, I don't incubate so I never know. As far as I'm concerned, all are females until they mature. Harry

I asked a similar question on the tortoise forum, because I had found a brief synopsis of an article in a Dutch (?) chelonian journal claiming that you could sex baby tortoises by the way they carry their tail--to the side for boys, straight for girls. Several people on the forum said they had noticed this to be true. Don't know how boxies normally carry their tails, but thought you might find this interesting.
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Sohni

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise
0.0.1 Marginated Tortoise
1.0 3 Toed Box Turtle (rescued)
plus my kids' herps:
0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko