Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello I may be aquiring a alligator snapper or two in the future. They are going to be hatchlings. as i have read in previous posts they can be hard to sex when young. but wondering if its possible. I will be able to compare two or more animals so it shouldn't be to hard. what should I be looking for? pics would help

i believe males grow faster. they will have to be around 14" shell size to be sure. there might be a problem if they are captive born. sex is determined by temperature. they will probably be the same sex unless you get a bunch of them. Steve

Alligator snappers are really hard to sex without surgical methods until they have reached maturity (anywhere between 13 and 20 years old). Males are a larger body size when they reach maturity, but no one has done any studies to see if they actually grow faster. There is a technique called laparoscopy that involves surgically inspecting the internal genitalia of the turtle to figure out if it is a male or female, but every paper I have read that involved this technique euthanized the turtles at the end. If it's crucial that you have males and females, you need to get adult turtles. There's no sure fire way to make sure your hatchlings are paired up, until they're old enough to tell by size and pre-anal tail length. Good luck.
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