Sexing babies

[SnowFoxx]

I just bought a pair of Leos for my fiance's little brother. I know we will have to seperate them if they are both males, so...how do I tell if they're both males? I'd like to get them into seperate tanks before the fighting starts, if possible.;) They are both very tiny, about two inches long.

Also, one is a standard looking leo, and the other is pink and yellow striped, instead of black and yellow. What is that called? Albino?

- Victoria :w

[Alicewave]

You can't sex them when they are really young but it's a good idea to separate them in the beginning anyway. Get their feeding habits established, make sure they are healthy, etc. Once they are 3-6 months old you should be able to tell the sex and know if they are compatible or not.

[Tim and Julie B]

There are a few "indicators" that you can look for in trying to make an educated guess about juveniles sex. Often, the males have much wider and larger heads, but it is hard to tell unless you have several to compare with. I have also found that the females tend to have slighly thicker, shorter tails, for what reason I do not know. But again, you need several to compare them to. Did you ask the vendor who sold them to you if they were temp sexed? Usually that is your best bet. Although there is room for error there too. I am guessing that they are around 3-5 weeks old? You should be able to tell their sex in 5-8 weeks by looking for the newly developing hemipenal bulges, so around that time you should watch for signs of fighting or general domination from one or both of them. Some even develop later than that. If you see these signs you'll need to seperate them then, but I wouldn't worry about seperating them just yet, so long as both are eating okay.:D
Pink and yellow sound albino to me! What color are the eyes?

[jakejeff]

if you can post a pic of there under bellies we could give you a good idea what sex they are

[geckoguy157]

at 2 inches long you wouldnt be able to tell the most experienced leo keeper would not be able to look at the underneath and determine the sex of it your best guess is the incubation tempature you should ask him what he incubated them at you should not have a problem with fighting for awhile the earliest they usualy reach maturity is about 3 months but it would be a good idea to seperate them you will now then how much they are eating and if they are

[geckoguy157]

ok snowfoxx i was just thinkin 2 inches that seams a bit small those must be some tiny and i mean tiny leo's considering i have a 1 day old leo and its 3 and a half inches long and i have a week old thats 4 inche's long so there is no possible way they can be 3 to 5 weeks old like tim and julie b said if they are that small they are obviously very young and shouldnt be sold at that age

[Tim and Julie B]

Well geckoguy, sorry but I have been breeding leos for a long time and yes, most babies at 3-5 weeks can be anywhere from 2-4 inches, especially since most people have trouble guessing size(many people cannot visually measure accurately). Almost all of the ones I have bred can be sexed between 8 and 13 weeks, just like I stated above ( 13 weeks is right around 3 months by the way) Just like all living things some are born smaller than others, size is not always the best determining factor in whether or not an animal should be sold, especially if it is healthy and eating well.

[geckoguy157]

um you didnt say 8 to 13 you said 5 to 8 and at 2 inches thats tiny like at 5 weeks they should be way bigger than 2 inches sounds like your just getting a bunch of runts i have never seen a leopard gecko at 5 weeks old that is 2 inches i have never seen a good healthy gecko come out that small and have never herd one coming out that small

[SnowFoxx]

Well, they're somewhere between 2-3" or thereabouts. They're not too tiny to be sold, or I wouldn't have bought them.

I don't have pics, unfortunately, and don't have a good enough camera to get clear pics of anything that small. I guess I should try to find someone local to sex them for me.

The pink one has light eyes. They're red, I think (he's under a paper towel right now, and I don't want to bother him to look).

- Victoria :w

[SnowSnake]

yup, looks like the one with the pink/red eyes is an albino :)

[Tim and Julie B]

(spell check) Okay 157, do the math. If I asked if they were 3-5 weeks, and said that they would be sexable in 5-8 weeks, then yes I most certainly did say 8-13. Runts? I don't want to cause controversey, but please read the posts correctly. Like I said, small is normal, and I have several small ones hatch each year, are you saying that mine are not healthy? I haven't had a complaint about any of the babies I have sold, EVER. I have never lost one either. Odd that you know so much about size, yet you didn't know the difference btween regular and hypo:D I really do not want to challenge you or anything but you should ask several other breeders what they think too, just to hear some different opinions, about sexing and weight, cause you could learn a lot. Take care,
Julie B.

[Tim and Julie B]

To not get completely off topic, I would think that it is in fact an albino. They sure are beautiful aren't they. I hope your soon to be brother in law enjoys them as much as the rest of us, and good luck with them :D

[Alicewave]

To hopefully extinguish the fire that is starting, some people when they estimate size only measure the head and the body, others include the tail. It's also really hard to measure a feisty little gecko. As long as it eats well and grows steadily size really doesn't matter ;). And Tim/Julie is right, it's really hard to guestimate without having a ruler right next to a Leo. And then again, getting a Leo to stand stick straight next to a ruler is not an easy task either. :)

[drewlowe]

Thats not always the case i have a 3 week old that is less than 2 inches. But he/she is also a runt. So it is a possibility that they can be that little. and i have had completely healthy leos hatch that little before also.

[Alicewave]

I find some leos are just bigger than others. I don't know if this is true in all cases but most normals I have seen get HUGE (70 grams or bigger) where as some of the other morphs seem to be smaller framed overall. There are lots of exceptions to this but animals are just like people. We've got our basketball players and our gymnasts. Nothing wrong with either.

[drewlowe]

I don't know about the color morphs being any smaller than normals alicewave. In my adult collection of leos. I have a tangarine that outweighs all but 1. Sorry don't know her weight off hand but tonight i will go home and throw her on the digital scale and weigh her. She is a big girl though. And i also breed her this year and 3 out of 4 eggs that have hatched so far have been bigger than the rest of the babies born from normal and high yellow parents. But i do agree with you that they do have different sizes along with many other qualities that make them indivuduals just like humans.

[Tim and Julie B]

Alicewave, I love your last comment about basketball players and gymnasts, killed myself laughing! I am not sure about the morphs being smaller, but I do know that naturally occuring albinos tend to be smaller.(for several species) I've not experienced this in my own breeding efforts, but I'm sure that all the genetic anomalies that produce the morphs that size would be affected at some point. Although Tremper giants almost make that seem impossible. But they are genetic anomalies themselves. They're HUGE! I wonder if anyone is currently breeding dwarf leos? Wont't be long anyways, since no one seems to appreciate the "regulars" anymore.........they are still one of my faves.

[geckoguy157]

um i dont purposly have them lol i held back 2 from last year and well there tiny im not sure the exact size il have to look later but they are both way smaller then normal and i know a breeder that has a few dwarf ones to i thought mine were just slow growers so i held them back but they eat like pigs and are a bit over a year old so they are dwarf's

[Alicewave]

Yeha i don't really know what I'm talking about, it's just something I have observed based on Leos my friends have. Like all the patternless I have seen seem to be smaller but you guys are right, it's probably not true in all cases. I think what I meant was more that there are leos with small genes and leos with big ones.

[Tim and Julie B]

Yeah, I understand what you meant, no worries, and you seem to know plenty so don't be too hard on yourself.:D I wonder if there would be a market for small ones? I have a breeder female who is only 5.5" and she's two years old, she's not one of mine, but I held back one of her babies from early last year and she's a tad smaller even. She was crossed with a huge male and still had teeny babies.Hmm? They both eat like crazy, but don't grow anymore. What do you guys think about dwarfs?