sexing a crested

[Ryan Schweiger]

Hello people,
I am new to crested gecko's and had a few questions about how to tell if it is a male or a female. I know that males have bulges, however I have never seen what they look like to be able to tell if mine is a male or a female. I have been told that she is a female but she is only three months old. Should I know by now? I hope that its a female. I was wondering if maybe there were pictures someone might have that they could post for me. Thanks for any help. I'd appreciate it.
Ryan M. Schweiger

[manville]

I would say it is too young to be sexed.

[dj_honeycuts]

Hi Ryan
At three months old I wouldn't go by what you have been told. Short of having something to magnify the pre-anal pores, or performing an endoscopy procedure on the cloacal opening, there is no definitive visual way to tell at that age. Males sometimes don't develope their bulges until they are 10-12 months old if they are really slow in development. I don't have any pics from underneath, but here are a couple of my cresteds from the side.
First is one of my females. Notice at the base of the tail there is no bulge. (Her belly is also dragging because she is gravid! )

Next is one of my males. You can see a very prominent bulge at the base of his tail.

Both these geckos are about three and a half years old.
Hope this helps!

[DragnDrop]

At 3 months old there's no way you can guarantee gender. Even with temperature sexing, it's at best 80-85% accurate. If the breeder incubated the eggs for female, there's still a good enough chance for a male to develop. Most males are obvious by 5-7 months, though I've had a few that waited until they were almost a year old before showing their true gender.

Seems to me, every time I move a suspected male to a new enclosure, he develops the bulges almost overnight. Maybe the stress of relocation has something to do with it. Now, if I think it's a male and he's not showing signs around 10 months, I just change enclosures... almost always works within 48 hours. Has anyone else noticed that?

[Ryan Schweiger]

Thank you all for the input, I really appreciate it. I was thinking of buying a male in hopes that they would breed. I think that I might wait for a bit now. What do you think? I know males don't work well together, but I'm still just kind of hoping that its a female. I'll try to get some pictures of her up for you if anyone wants them. Thanks.

[adamofsound]

I have a crestie that is justnow starting to show it's bulge. it is just over 10 months old. thanks to the advice of everyone on this forum I kept it separate from my other male until I was sure, even thoughI really wanted to house them together.
on the flip side, I have an 8 month old that still looks female, but, caution is always best.
The bulge is very obvious when it develops.