Gender?

[Lutchmom]

Is there any way I can find out the gender of my tegu? The vet "thinks" it's probably a girl. We bought it December 2018 from a pet store, the store bought it in August from a reptile show. The vet thinks our tegu is approximately 20 months. I measured him/ her today and it was 3 feet 2 inches.

 

[Lutchmom]

I've been trying to get a picture of its vent, but that's not going well. Here's the best I got.

 

[Walter1]

Sorry, I can't read the vent. Need the edge of it.

 

[Debita]

If it's that long.....it should def show jowl growth! 3'2" is pretty big, and my fat jowled male started showing growth at about 6-8 months. My guess is she's female because you'd know for sure if it was a male by now.

I'm basing my opinion on Black/White Argentine growth. What kind is yours? And, can you send out a full pic, or close up of the head and neck?

 

[Walter1]

If it's that long.....it should def show jowl growth! 3'2" is pretty big, and my fat jowled male started showing growth at about 6-8 months. My guess is she's female because you'd know for sure if it was a male by now.

I'm basing my opinion on Black/White Argentine growth. What kind is yours? And, can you send out a full pic, or close up of the head and neck?

Exactly. Blue and blue cross males do not have much in the way of jowls.

 

[Lutchmom]

If it's that long.....it should def show jowl growth! 3'2" is pretty big, and my fat jowled male started showing growth at about 6-8 months. My guess is she's female because you'd know for sure if it was a male by now.

I'm basing my opinion on Black/White Argentine growth. What kind is yours? And, can you send out a full pic, or close up of the head and neck?

 

[Lutchmom]

It's a red tegu.

 

[Debita]

Thx for the pics - there are great pics if you google "male Red Tegu pics" online. While the Reds might be shorter in length, the males still develop clearly round shaped jowls like the B/W's do. (right Walter1?) I think yours does not show that typical clear shape, and there are people here on this forum that could give you a good conclusion if you can get the vent pic a little more obvious. I didn't see anything on the vent pic that even hinted at having the small scale buds that are present on males, but I'm def not an expert. If you've never had a male/female comparison, it's fairly difficult to know what you're looking at.

Cute lizard!

 

[Walter1]

Me, too. At that size, jowls are typically obvious in males. I think this is a well fed young adult female.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

From looking at the pics and reading the info I also believe you have a nice chunky female....... But also a Male at 20 month would be leaving a plug in his pee by now which is pretty unavoidable to miss too...... Its a sticky bit of white string (spunk) in his pee.

 

[Lutchmom]

Ok, follow up question. If my tegu is a female, will she lay unfertilized eggs? (I looked for this answer already, but found some people saying yes, and some people saying no ‍)

 

[Debita]

No, I do not think so - I thought it would be only from being mated, or bred. From what I understand, they won't even mate if they don't feel the circumstances are good to lay a clutch. The Black/White and Blue Argentines are the only known lizards in the world to build a nest!! They have one area to lay the clutch, and another area to set themselves up to guard the clutch. They can lay a boat load of eggs.....like up to 70-ish.

There are actually lizards that are "parthenogenic" that reproduce without being bred. Tegus don't, but I thought I'd just throw that in for an FYI. Arizona whiptails are gorgeous neon colored lizards that do this.