Sexing leopard geckos..

[Jace]

I recently purchased two leopard geckos, Mika and Afton. They are approximately 2" long and I'm thinking too small to properly sex. For now, they are in the same home, but when can they be sexed? I've read that males cannot be kept together, but females can. Thanks for any help.

[Jace]

Well, both are eating very well. Fast little ones!! And they kept licking their lips, which is what my dogs do when they eat. They checked out my fingers but moved away when touched, so I will have to gradually let them get used to me. My daughter is very excited-she picked out and named Mika; Afton is the bolder of the two and came right out to hunt when the crickets were tossed in.

[adawinters]

Found you a quick link with pics:

http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardgender.htm

After ~ 6 months, you should be able to sex them. Males have hemipenal bulges and femural pores. Females don't. Sometimes, they develop later than expected. The general rule of thumb is that, if you can ID a young, adult male, he's male. If you ID a young adult female, she's PROBABLY a female. (She might just be a late blooming male.)

You're right that males will be aggressive toward each other and should not be housed together. Females can be housed together. If you wind up with one male and one female (as unfortunately was the case with me), the general consensus is to separate them, to avoid aggression and over breeding. I've taken to feeding them separately, outside of the enclosure, because I saw some definite food-aggression, but I've been lucky enough that they don't (yet?) have any interest in mating, so until I see them trying to do that little dance, I'll keep them together. (They're about 2 1/2 right now). My male only has ANY interest in the female when she's competition for a cricket. Otherwise, they pretty much ignore each other completely.

There is also something called a "hot female," which is a female leopard gecko that results from being bred at too-high temps. These are quite aggressive, and should be housed alone. I have not yet been able to find a pic of their underside-bits, so I do not know if there is any visible way to sex for a hot female. (If anyone out there has any info on hot females -- besides the temps that create them -- I'm actually very interested in learning more, so please PM me.)

Hope that helps. I have leopard geckos, and I read way too much for my own good, so let me know if there's anything else I can help with. I think most of the basics are covered in the care sheets, though.

[Jace]

Wow, thanks. Very helpful. I was wrong about their lengths, though-they are more like 3" or slightly longer. Afton was stretched out and didn't hide when I measured him/her with my fingers. Still too small and too young to determine sex though. They both seem very alert and still looked hungry, though I must have dropped a good 20 crickets in. Nothing was left 10 minutes later. Can they be over-fed?

I was told Afton was a certain type of Leopard Gecko, though no-one could remember the actual name. S/he looked nothing like the others, which is why it was picked-I like unusual looking pets . That and it's easy to tell them apart.

Thank you very much for your help. I can't wait for them to get bigger and I really hope that I have two females, but I shall have to wait and see.

[adawinters]

Post some pics and I'll try to help with the type/morph.

I'm pretty sure they can be overfed. Any animal that stores fat can wind up overdoing it. Animals that can't store fat will generally only eat as much as they need. Once you've seen enough pictures of healthy leopard geckos, you get a sense of their normal proportions. As long as they don't start looking "fat" to you, it should be alright. (I did hear of one instance where, at a checkup at the vet's office, an owner was politely scolded for her gecko's obesity. ) I think that the real measure is their armpits. When armpits start to loose definition, it's time for a diet.

[Jace]

Thank you sooo much for all your help. I've been reading up on them like crazy, but it's nice to know that someone relatively "close" can help with them if needed.

I went back to the petstore and they told me Afton is a Blizzard Leopard Gecko. Here's a picture of her (I keep calling this one she so a she it is for now!) out and about hunting last night.