Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey,
yesterday i moved Scotty my 6mo old Blackthroat into a larger cage. it is a 8x4x4, since i got him back in February he has been in a 4x2x2, then a 5x3x3 and now a 8x4x4. everytime i put him in a new cage. he acts very odd and pushes out his hemipenes. he did this when i put him in his first cage when he was only 7inches. he does this everytime he goes into a new cage, and does it everytime he sees me for a couple days. is he just trying to mark his new "territory" he doesnt ever seem to be stressed out he ate right after i put him in his new cage and lets me pick him up without a problem. and he wiggles his tail about like a snake... really hard to explain but if you have seen it done you know what im talking about. i was just wondering what exactly he's doing.
later
new pics soon he is 42" now
below is a pic of Scotty 1month ago at 37". the measuring tape is pulled out to 44"

scent marking, that's all. Is the wiggling tail accompanied with rubbing its vent on the surface, or the base of its hemipenes/hemiclitori?

Oh, and are you sure Scotty is a male? Have any close up shots of his/her head (side view) and base of the tail?

he rubs it against his substrate. pretty sure, he does have a bulge at the base of his tail, and has had one for a long time now, since he was 18" or so. i'll take a pic of it soon. though i would LOVE for Scotty to actually be a girl.

Almost every monitor Ive had has everted and scent marked the cage when they are first placed in it. Its a good way to tell the sex of a monitor by placing them in anothers cage as a matter of fact (after removing the resident of course), they walk around everting and vent rubbing for several minutes, unless they are scared of course.
Both male and female do this, only hemipenes and hemiclitori are different, but you must see a full eversion, not a partial or they will look very similar. By the pics you posted of its tail base before and the head as well body shape it looks female, the pores bulge on a female at the very edge of the vent, but males have BULGES!! (not bulges). This is a male albig, note the tail base, head shape, and general body shape.

your knowledge on being able to tell whether a B/WT is male or female doesnt seem so promising. if i remember right you were sure that Sobek was a male for so long, and the only reason you found out differently was because she had eggs (or something like that) i know the differences between the hemipenes, and the hemiclitori. i am pretty sure he is male, not 100% sure. still hoping Scotty really is a female. i havnt gotten the best look at what he is everting, but right now he looks male. so thats what i will go by. like i said before, would love for him to be female.
later and keep up with the pics. you have a great looking BT

My knowledge of sexing albigs has grown from learning, experience (13 years with monitors alone), and making mistakes in the past. You are free to check the archieves here and verify that the only one who was sure on Sobeks (BT/WT/WT cross) sex as a female before I found out by her cycling (and it was only a few months before) was FR. Of course a few people said afterwards that they new she was female. Guess what, I learned the hard way on that case also because Sobek has always had bulges under her tail base (almost as big as my friends male Sienna Leguaan), but they are not BULGES like my male BT/WT cross. There are a few points that give it away, the head shape, the body shape (also around the base of the belly before the hips), the nose shape, and of course what everts. When a male albig everts even at 18 inches long it can not be missed it is big, and they do it often. I have pics of a manual eversion of my male as its not easy to get pics of naturally. The female everts a thinner shorter hemiclitori that appears on the end like a roll, where as a males hemipene has a large "flowered" end and 2 finger looking projections. One important point female Albigs scent mark as much if not more than some males do (Ive had a few of both), as a matter of fact Sobek for example scent marks to cover up from my male (Shadow) in the yard as well to cover up when cats, dogs, and other animals scent mark there. She rubs her vent, her back legs, her hips, her tail, her stomach, her front legs, her chin, and lower jaw against the ground.
You know what, both of my albigs came from a long time world famous breeder of albigs, niles, argus, and other species that thought for Shadows first 2 years of life he was a female, I could tell after he showed up he was male, and even by looking at the picture that was on the website he was for sale on. Rob was very suprised that Shadow was male, Im suprised no one else caught that by seeing the picture on the website for so long. heres the pic from Robs old site before I bought Shadow (in this pic hes 2 years old). The link is of myself popping Shadow, posted on a friends website.

Picture of Shadow during manual eversion (popping).

Before I bought him at 2 years old.

My male BT/WT cross..

This is a pic of me holding Blaize, he is a "Sienna Leguaan" or sienna colored whitethroat. Hes a definite male that fully everts at almost everything that moves or doesnt move. Blaize is about 4.5-5ft long. Note the shape of the head, hard to see the tail base.

The tail base is not obvious on here but Zeus has BULGES on his tail like the pic of my male I posted. Zeus came from Goanna Ranch and is the same age as Sobek my big Albig. Zeus is around 3.5ft long.