Thread: Sexing: A fresh encounter leaves me even more confused!

Large grey one looks female to me, don't worry about the crest running the length of the tail as that's not a proven method, just a general observation.

The small dark one looks like it may have stripes on its eye turrets and triangles on its crest which would indicate male, but those pictures are too obscure to be certain.

I often look at one of my females and think is she pregnant/isn't she. She seems to posture her body sometimes that she looks really plump, yet at others she looks normal without appearing stretched.

Pygmies become sexually mature at around 3 months as far as I'm aware, but there's no guarantee that a pair will mate with one-another. I previously had a trio and the only mating was with one of the females, the other simply never laid eggs and I never caught them at it - I did on one occasion catch her buzzing to deter the male. It is possible I guess that some couples will simply never get it on, and also that some may be infertile, or that the mating did not occur within the appropriate time of the breeding cycle, ie the female was not ovulating.

Whilst the above doesn't specifically answer your questions, it is worth considering the following factors:

i) infertility
ii) immaturity
iii) female may not be receptive
iv) mating outside of ovulation

In short, leave them together for a few months and if it appears they are not breeding, or the female is not gravid (you will know for sure once she is), then it may be worth introducing another female if you get the opportunity.

You could always get a male, but you would definetly need to separate the males if you ended up with 2. Whilst they may not appear to fight, 1 will more than likely look "depressed", remain dark, hardly move, and probably not eat. Separating them isn't as big an issue as it might first sound - remember they don't require basking lights, etc., so all you would need is a small tank (can easily be obtained for under 20.00), or a Really Useful Box even! Provided that you can offer 22C and 70% humidity just about any container that's at least 12'x6'x12' would do. Remember to obscure the view if you put tanks next to each other so that the different inhabitants can't see one another.

Are you able to post a full side profile of the suspect pygmy? Try with and without flash. The markings should be present no matter what mood he is in (if he's a he) and it might be possible to bring them out if you adjust the hue and saturation of the image.

Dave

They come in different colours, shapes and sizes, even with species. All 3 of my males are different - 1 of them rarely ever shows his patterns/colours and for 2 weeks I thought he as female until I put him in with another male and then his display came out! My females also vary in colour.

If I was to decide on that picture alone, I would probably lean towards male because it looks like there are triangle patterns on the crest and you indicated earlier that it displayed some patterning when you collected it.

Colours are related to mood and this is largely effected by the environment. Double check your temperature averages 22C in the day and the humidity is 70% or above. If you can setup a separate viv you might want to give them a trial separation to see if that makes any difference on the behaviour/patterning.

Here is an example of a stressed female, presumably due to the advances of the unwelcome male in the background.



Does this resemble the pattern and colouration you saw when you brought them home?