togo fire skink

[lynsey_togofire]

i have recently aquired a togo fire skink...named him Gucci...and i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to sex "him" to make sure it is a "him"...lol...i was told that the males are broader in the head and base of the tail, but without compairing him to another togo, i cannot determine whether or not "he's" male or not...and i really don't have the money to take him to the vet to get "probed"! LOL! so if anyone has any suggestions, they'd be greatly appreciated! thanks!

[Katatonic]

LOL Perhaps you'd prefer to go with a "uni-sex" name. The whole "head width" aspect to sexing may hold true, and may not. Like you pointed out, you would need to have seen a number of animals, proven their sexes, and be able to compare them to your skink in order to have any actual accuracy. As a general rule, male skinks tend to have a broader head, and a thicker tail base where the hemipenes are stored... But again, this isn't written in stone.
I know with a number of other species of large skinks, you can look for seminal plugs, to identify males, which are normally shed once a day or with feces and/or urine. They look like tiny, translucent strands of silicone and may be smeared over the substrate near defecation. This is easiest to observe if the skink in question is housed in a simplified enclosure i.e. newspaper, papertowel, repti-carpet substrate so you can actually identify these plugs. No matter what method you use, I believe the animals have to be mature before you can come to remotely rely on any method. You could try the seminal plug I.D. approach and use that in conjunction with head size as well...
Happy plug hunting. It's my best suggestion.
LATER.

[lynsey_togofire]

thanks for the info! yeah...i could do that...or i could fork out the money and take "him" to the vet. :( i was asking because i would eventually like to get another togo and breed them. they are absolutly the most wonderful little lizards!