Please forgive another C.turneri sexing question

sschind · #1 01-20-2009, 09:09 PM

I just traded a few animals for 8 CBB juvenile C. turneri at a local reptile swap on Sunday. They look very healthy but in my haste to get them back into a warm environment I forgot to ask how old they were. I emailed the breeder and should get a response soon. Anyway, they are all right around 3 inches SVL. Is this big enough to sex them? I certainly hope not because if they are sexable at this size I am afraid I have all females. I don't really see any white spots on any of them and the vent area has no bulges and the only thing I can see that may be considered spiky protruberances is there on all of them. I'm hoping they are just too small to tell yet.

The breeder had them all together and said she noticed no fighting. If they are not sexable yet that may be the reason. I was hoping to be able to house at least some of them together because right now I don't have the room for 8 more tanks but I don't want to put them together if there might be fighting soon.

Any suggestions.

Thanks

**thorrshamri** · #2 02-24-2009, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschind

I just traded a few animals for 8 CBB juvenile C. turneri at a local reptile swap on Sunday. They look very healthy but in my haste to get them back into a warm environment I forgot to ask how old they were. I emailed the breeder and should get a response soon. Anyway, they are all right around 3 inches SVL. Is this big enough to sex them? I certainly hope not because if they are sexable at this size I am afraid I have all females. I don't really see any white spots on any of them and the vent area has no bulges and the only thing I can see that may be considered spiky protruberances is there on all of them. I'm hoping they are just too small to tell yet.

The breeder had them all together and said she noticed no fighting. If they are not sexable yet that may be the reason. I was hoping to be able to house at least some of them together because right now I don't have the room for 8 more tanks but I don't want to put them together if there might be fighting soon.

Any suggestions.

Thanks

Then i'm afraid you may only have males among those 9 turneri....3 inches SVL is not adult but not so far from it, this species doesn't have very obvious bulges. There are no femoral nor preanal pores neither.

This is a full-grown male:

Check yourself...females don't have these spiky growths.

sschind · #3 02-24-2009, 03:32 PM

Thanks for the picture. At first glance I would have said yup those are mine but I just went and looked and found 2 eggs in one enclosure. I still have all of them separate (except the two who keep getting over the barrier) but the eggs look like they might be fertile (nice and pink looking) They have been separate since I got them a little over a month ago but it would appear that I have at least 1 pair. Now the trick is to figure it out. I least I know the female.

**thorrshamri** · #4 02-24-2009, 04:34 PM

There's an even simpler "trick": males usually have white spots on their backs while females don't

This is true with all the turneri i have ever seen, i don't know if this can be made as a rule.

sschind · #5 02-24-2009, 08:43 PM

Yeah, I read that. Well, I know I have at least 1 female. The problem is all the others look the same as that one. Its possible that the eggs are infertile, or its possible that the person I got them from had them all in with a male until she brought them to me. It was only a little over a month ago so I would think that the female could have been impregnated then. I really don't see any with a lot of white spots. A see a few with what looks like the spikes but to be honest I don't see any that look like they would be more than the others. The one that laid the eggs looks like she has them as much as any of the others. Oh well, I'm not in a hurry to find anything out so I guess I will just wait to see what plays out.