sexing

Question

Garth on the christmas   QUESTION: Hi i adopted my 2.5ft green iguana from a pet shop after someone had abandoned him a few months ago and named him garth because he has quite a blue head. I cannot seem to come to a conclusion about his sex though, he has quite a bit of blue in his head and a bit of orange down his body but quite a girly face. As for his genital area it is even more confusing. His femoral pores sometimes enlarge with a hard white material and they can fall off and then crumble into a white powder leaving the femoral pores brown and flat. I was wondering if this was normal? Also should a male iguana have a bulge below the vent?

ANSWER: Hi Stephanie,
Aww, cute little greenie, he is!! He/she may still be a bit too young to sex 100% properly. With the pores, that is pointing to a male as females do not "grow" their pores larger to mark territory.
Sometimes they are very hard to sex doing visual on them.  Colors really do not matter as to trying to determine their sex. Femoral pores are larger on a male.  They start larger at the top of the leg and stay larger for more mores on the way down the leg where a female may have a few larger ones at the top but the rest are very small, sometimes almost pin point size.
Males femoral pores do grow with a waxy substance which they will rub off on things to mark their territory. If the pores are not leaving holes, or are looking irritated, he is most likely rubbing them off normally. When not enlarged to mark, they will be flatter and can be brown in color.
If you go to my webshots page(address in my signature line) and into the folder MAKUTAH, there are pictures of him showing the tail base and the "bumps" that are there.  They are the hemipeni bumps. Also, if you check the other folders, you will see female and male igs with pictures of the pores. All male igs do not show the hemipeni bumps the same way.  Some may be larger than others and some may be very hard to spot.
Some things that are different on a male... but may not show up until a bit larger/older are that their crest(spikes at the top of their head) are different..a female has a thicker area there for protection during the breeding process.  It is where the male grabs on with their mouth to hold on to the female. Again, this isn't a sure sign as some males tend to hide their maleness..."Beta male" and some females tend to look more male.. "Alpha female".
If the pores are large pretty much all the way down the legs, chances are, you have a male, especially the way they are "shedding off". If not 100% sure yet, in a few months you should get a much better idea. If you are able to get a picture of the pores, the tail base from above him and a picture of the crest, I "MIGHT" be able to give you a better idea.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Femoral pores   QUESTION: Thank you so much for your information, I agree that he may be too young to tell and I did origionally attempt to send you a picture of his femoral pores but the site wouldnt accept the data. I have taken another picture and ill sent it now. I have a picture of his crest as well but you are only aloud to send one so I will see if I can follow-up again.

Answer
Pores are going more toward male, ...I swear that at some "tween" age they go through a gender crisis and don't know what they want to be!  I do see a touch of reddish pink at the vent..which can be a small portion of a hemipene showing due to the way he is being held. Do you ever find little waxy string like "presents" in his cage, on any shelves, towels, etc that are in there?  Espcially where he lays or rubs against?  http://www.anapsid.org/iguana/sexingigs.html  has a good article on sexing..in it there is a clickable link to what a plug looks like.  Many times they are much whiter looking though and once they dry on something they remind me more of white onion skin. If you have found these, then congrats, you 100% have a boy!
My male, even when less than a year old, when I held him, he would deposit the plugs on my hand!!  Like I really needed those presents!! Sometimes they are so easy to sex(my rescue male was) and other times, almost impossible til they are 2-3 years old.  My one female(Lew), people still think she is a he, but she has laid eggs so that confirms female for sure. My other female(Jose) for the most part was very easy as she always had very small pores.