Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have what I believe to be a male Savannah, I think he is a male because I usually once a week I let him go in the tub, and his hemis come out. My question is does anyone know of a step by step intruction on how to probe a Monitor. I know how to probe Snakes but I have never done it on a Monitor.
I thank you for any input,
Joel Pretz

probing a monitor is not(if any) as simple as probing a snake, and is definately not fun for both owner and animal. Easy way is to see if anything else sticks out apart from his stools. If you did see his hemis stick out with your own eyes...no doubt. Male
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2.2.0 RES (Bowser, Angela, Leo, April)
1.0.0 V. Albigularis (Godzilla)
1.0.0 Z. Quadrilineatus (Yago)
1.0.0 Python Regius (Kaa)
1.0.0 Cat (Garfield)

Also, they are built differently, both male and female monitors have everting sexual organs, of which the depth will not tel you the sex. I dont care if someone says theyve done it before, or how safe they say it is, never probe a monitor, you or your vet can and will do permenant damage, also I can name examples that hemiclitori on females are just as long or longer than hemipenes.
With monitors when you see an ADULT evert its sexual organs you have to know what you are seeing to be able to tell. When they are younger or not adults its hard to tell, its best to go by secondary sexual characteristics even as adults, why, males look like males, and females look like females.
An alternate method if you have a vet that is experienced with herps and has experience with monitors can make a small incision and use an endoscope to look for ovaries or testes. Personally I wouldnt put them through an unneeded operation just to tell sex.
Note I speciefied ADULT, the reason for this is that subadult monitors are difficult to sex with accuracy, hatchlings are impossible.
If it was an adult and someone who knows what they are doing can pop them, not easy to do. Do not try this unless you know what you are doing, you can permanently damage them.

So, the question!!! How do you sex them. I fyou only have one and looking for a mate.
Thnx again, any input will be appreciated,
Joel Pretz

How do you know it cannot be done? How do you know that some of the people who claim to be able to do it actually cannot do it? How do you know that probing a monitor will be unsuccessful in determining the sex of the animal? Do you actually have any verifiable experiences or are you simply repeating the views and ideas of other people on this forum, and others, as your rationale?

And since it seems on this forum that to challenge an idea means that one supports the opposite idea, I will state that I do not recommend probing either. I simply want to know the basis upon which you make your claims.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^
Monitors, monitors everywhere
and all the food they ate.
Monitors, monitors everywhere,
their parents loved to mate.

Have or at one time had longer hemiclitori than most male monitors of the same species hemipenes. One of those females with long hemiclitori is a water monitor I know of, one is Sobek. So if someone who could possibly probe a monitor that has been put under anesthesia and not hurt or damage it, how accurate is the depth of probing? Also there would have to be a known reference point on depth for the size and age of all species as well known males and females to even come close to being accurate.
I had a great herp vet, very experienced tell me he could probe a monitor and "possibly guess at its sex", I asked why, he explained that snakes are commonly probed and have easily accessible references on depth by sex and species, he also said that lizards are different, probing "if it can be done without the chance of harming them" is not accurate. This vet also stated that Sobek was male from outword appearance, etc. I told him there is no chance Id ever get a monitor probed.
He also told me just as the new herp vet I have has said, that the only accurate way is to be able to recognize a male from a female outwardly or to insert an endoscope near the lizards hip area and look for ovaries or testes. Why risk permanent damage, risk an operation, when you can wait to discover the animals sex less intrusively.
Ive discussed this with more than a few vets (probing monitors), there are a few that will say they can do it, but they either wont tell you how accurate their guess will be afterwards, or that there is a big risk because they are built different, probing works as it was designed on snakes, not lizards. Yet Ive found the good knowledeable vets will tell you the truth before asking you if you want to take the risk.
Of course the choice to try it is the keepers, by all means, do as you please with your monitors.

These pics are on a friends website, Ive done this more than a few times over the years, but Im by no means an expert at it, also some monitors have very very strong tails, this makes popping them very very difficult. Heres and old malealbig of mine.

A young male water monitor a friend had, again the camera takes pictures too slow to catch a full eversion in most cases.

There are a few more but the camera took some of those too slow. Heres a natural eversion from the same male albig caught while he was crapping. Here the camera was too slow again, not quite fully everted.