# Sexing Gidgee Skinks Egernia stokesii



## Ailurus (May 9, 2011)

I am trying to find information online on a definitive way to determine the sex of Egernia stokesii. The only methods I have found are: 
- Introduce them and see what happens, but seeing as I currently only have one, that is difficult and also it can leave to casualties which I don't really want to happen. 
- Blood Tests, I imagine this is expensive. 
- Invasive Surgery, which again sounds expensive and also a bit unnecessary. 
- I was also told that the spines on males tails face outwards and on females they face backwards, however looking at pictures online they all look pretty similar to me. 

If any keepers on here know a good way to determine the gender of this species, please do comment, I would love to find out. 

The reasons I ask is first of all to make sure my male is indeed a male. And also to help me sex any animals I pick up at Hamm in September. 

Thanks in advance 

Tom


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## -Peter (May 9, 2011)

To my knowledge they are not sexually dimorphic. The animals I have encountered in the wild seem to pair up and inhabit defined areas in rocky outcrops or scrub unlike cunninghami which seem to live in family groupings.


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## richardsc (May 9, 2011)

yes can be tricky sexing them,best to look at multiple options,ive heard the tail spine thing to,but from what ive seen thats not 100 percent reliable,my pr barely show any diff there,well not super obvious anyways,i only guesstimated mine on the sizes of heads,,which is also subtle but with that look at head shape,neck thickness relative to head,nose thickness relative to head,i must admit i only guessed,wasnt entirely confident until i saw them mating,like cunninghams,they arent the easiest to sex,and even females can be aggressive to cage mates,i once had a huge female cunningham i presumed to be a male as it was super aggressive to all my other ones,even males,i seperated it from the group and one day went in to feed them and it had had babies


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