# Sex of my B&W



## Chance (May 26, 2010)

Howdy folks. I'm very glad to have found this forum. I came into possession of a young adult male Argentine B&W tegu a few days ago to use as an educational animal. I teach biology and anatomy and keep a wide array of critters in the classroom. Even though it's the end of the school year, the tegu has quickly became the biggest hit. He's incredibly docile and the students love interacting with him.

I have a rather large classroom and intend to get a large water trough to keep him in next school year. I am interested though in acquiring a mate for him since I really enjoy working with him. 

So of course before I even consider the girlfriend possibility I need to make sure he's a he. He was bought directly from Bobby Hill and I believe he's from his giant line. He was sold to the lady I got him from as a male.

Here's what he looks like now:



























So what do you think? Is the consensus that he's a he? 

By the way this is the first tegu I've ever kept and at this point I just have to ask myself, what took me so long?!


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## lazyjr52 (May 26, 2010)

Very nice looking gu you have there. That is an extreme giant and it looks to be a female.


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## VARNYARD (May 26, 2010)

You are now the proud owner of an Extreme giant tegu, that is 110% pure Extreme giant from my stock. And it looks to be a real nice female.


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## Chance (May 26, 2010)

Amazing. The lady who gave her to me said you told her it was probably a male but I've heard it's tough to sex young ones. I had my suspicions that it was a female based on seeing some videos of males that were big and jowly. That's a good thing though! The only thing that sucks is that I'm going to have to totally change my mindset and stop calling it a he...haha. 

So, being a female from the extreme giant line, how big can I expect her to be? And how likely am I to procure a male from this same line?


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## Chance (May 26, 2010)

Also, is there a simple way to tell the Extreme Giants apart from the regular B&Ws?


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## Chance (May 26, 2010)

Now let me take a moment to take my foot out of my mouth and say that I'm not totally helpless and just read some things Bobby posted on how to tell Extremes apart from normals.


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## Toby_H (May 26, 2010)

At the bottom of the base of the tail, where you would expect it's "private parts" to be, on males you will feel two small, hard balls. On my 3.5' male they feel like and are about the size of bb's. 

I was convinced mine was a female for the first 1.5 years of it's life. Then I felt for the bb's and they were quite noticable. In the last 6 months his jowles have become quite noticable. 

I'm by no means challenging the suggestions that it is a female, I'm only trying to give you a way to confirm their suggestions. 

Based on my assumption that mine was a female, my girlfriend named "her" Delilah. Depsite our confirmation that he is indeep a he, his name is still Delilah though the nic name "Big D" has stuck. Thus far I have noticed no psychological impact of the misleading gender specific name.


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## herper9 (May 26, 2010)

Make sure you read the housing portions of the forum as well. Tons of good information that will help your gu(s) have a happy and long life.


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## brutus13 (May 26, 2010)

Thats a beautiful girl gu! Bobby does have the very best that's for sure!


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## txrepgirl (May 26, 2010)

WOW she is so perfect. Congrats on your new Tegu. Who ever had her before took very good care of her. Hope you will keep us updated on her and post some more pictures  . Thank you. Good luck with everything.


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## Chance (May 26, 2010)

Thank you for the compliments. All of them should be directed at the people who raised her: Jamie and Jeff Hough of Valley Dragons. They bought her from Bobby Hill a couple of years ago and have obviously devoted a lot of time and effort into raising a beautiful, well adjusted tegu, even if there was some confusion on the gender! :-D I only hope to be able to keep up the quality of care and to make her an educational ambassador for her species.


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## Jefroka (May 26, 2010)

She's quite beautiful and reminds me of my boy Beauregard, but she seems even lighter. You have a real gem there!


...Jefroka


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## VARNYARD (May 26, 2010)

Jamie did get her from me, and it is a Extreme. I have eggs in the incubator now if you want to reserve a mate. I would look for her to reach around 4ft long, as females tend to run smaller in all the species.


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## preston897 (May 26, 2010)

thats really awsome that you are using her for educational purposes. she is a beautiful tegu. and we need more herps to be educational ambassadors in this rough time in our hobby. congrats on a great gu.


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## reptastic (May 26, 2010)

VARNYARD said:


> Jamie did get her from me, and it is a Extreme. I have eggs in the incubator now if you want to reserve a mate. I would look for her to reach around 4ft long, as females tend to run smaller in all the species.



a bit off topic but bobby i had no idea you had some extremes for reserve still, i need to resereve one of those asap! i thought for sure they ere all reserved by now!


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## VARNYARD (May 26, 2010)

reptastic said:


> VARNYARD said:
> 
> 
> > Jamie did get her from me, and it is a Extreme. I have eggs in the incubator now if you want to reserve a mate. I would look for her to reach around 4ft long, as females tend to run smaller in all the species.
> ...




I have some spots still open, the eggs are incubating now. :drool :-D


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## VARNYARD (May 26, 2010)

Chance said:


> Also, is there a simple way to tell the Extreme Giants apart from the regular B&Ws?



Chance, here is the info to show the differences:

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<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1275" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1275</a><!-- l -->


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## reptastic (May 26, 2010)

VARNYARD said:


> reptastic said:
> 
> 
> > VARNYARD said:
> ...



awesome you can expect a call from me soon i also just have to get one of those roy x magnolia babies they are gonna be awesome!


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## VARNYARD (May 26, 2010)

The Roy x Magnolia's are normals, I think I might have a few open on them as well.


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## preston897 (May 26, 2010)

i surly cant wait to get my varyard baby. hopefully this summer i will be able to get one. i guess we will see. it may be next year before i am able to though


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## reptastic (May 26, 2010)

VARNYARD said:


> The Roy x Magnolia's are normals, I think I might have a few open on them as well.



yeah i know, but they are still gonna be awesome! i just hope you have more openings when im ready!


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## Chance (May 27, 2010)

I try to have a variety of reptiles and other critters in my classroom for educational purposes. The tegu is, for the time being, certainly the most impressive. My other gem is a young male eastern indigo snake that was donated to me by Matthew Rand. I don't know if I have any students who really appreciate what they have access to in that snake but I know I would've died if I had walked into my high school biology teacher's classroom and saw an indigo.

In addition to those two spectacular animals, I also have a pair of western hognose snakes, an albino hybrid mutant kingsnake/milksnake thing (not really sure what all is in her but she's pretty), a baby male dwarf reticulated python, a couple female Schneider's skinks, and a young sulcata tort.

As for nonherps I also have a couple of young pacu fish, a couple of chinchillas, and a couple of tubs of rats. The kids get to see the entire cycle of life with the rats as well as study genetics. My two founding rats I bought last November are hairless and T+ albino. As expected, all of their offspring look completely normal but carry both recessive genes. When they breed you get a myriad of babies including a few unexpected hoodeds and some other oddities. Most go to the snakes and now the tegu before they get very old though 8) 

What I really love about being able to keep these animals in my room is that I can literally sit there and watch students and even other teachers get over their fears. Interestingly, the students seem far more open-minded about it than my teacher colleagues. Though I'll give my math teacher neighbor a lot of credit. She won't get near a snake and she was initially terrified of the terrible tegu (alliteration ftw!), but I had her out walking around my classroom yesterday afternoon and the teacher came in because she wanted to see it. She gradually worked her way up to touching it, and within 15 minutes she was holding her and even put her back in her cage before she left. How's that for being a perfect ambassador?

The tegu has certainly became the sweetheart of the classroom, even despite the super cute black chinchillas on the other side of the room. I guess there's just something about a lizard that size that seems so docile. She's not quite to the point where she'll follow someone like that big male in the video Bobby posted on his site, but doesn't shy away either. She's very easy about her eating habits as well and will calmly take a young rat or some turkey when given it rather than showing some kind of scary feeding response like some monitors I've had. 

I really love teaching kids about why biology is important and the animals give me not only living examples of biology in action, but also reasons to be concerned with their conservation. And I can guarantee you that I've sparked at least a few up and coming herpetoculturalists (I'm sure they're parents just love me).


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## Chance (May 27, 2010)

By the way, though my big girl needs one more season before she's ready, I'll be on the lookout for someone with a lonely adult male who may want to try for a breeding loan situation. I would love to just buy a male for her but with their price and my teacher salary I'm not sure how well I could swing that. So if you have a male Extreme Giant that will be ready next season and you want to pair him to an obviously beautiful example of this line, then shoot me an e-mail at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a><!-- e -->, or call or text 479-477-0434. I have plenty of references in the herp world and I am a public school teacher so obviously I've had my background checked! (And my patience tested) :lol:


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