Safe to say Skittle is outsizing Pooka

[Pooka]

Hey all,
I posed a question to the WD mailing list this weekend and wanted some more feedback. The usual background first. I have had Pooka since she was a hatchling (she was about 5 or 6 inches long when she came home with us) and 6 months later got Skittle at young juvinile (he was 8 inchs long when he came home with us). So at the time Skittle came to live with us Pooka was 13 or so inches long almost 2 times his size. As you will see from the pictures below Pooka has always been the larger more dominant dragon. Well Skittle is now larger then Pooka. It seems like it happened practically overnight but so many of his characteristics are tending towards the male side and he is becoming a huge monster. See for yourselves and let me know some of your thoughts, also enjoy the baby pictures

This past April 4-5-05 (skittle is the dragon in the bottom right):


This past April 4-5-05 (skittle is the dragon on top):


This past August 8-1-05 (skittle is the dragon on the left):


This past Saturday 10-8-05 (skittle is the dragon on the right):

[dragosmom]

Pooka, it's still a little too early to tell definitively (sic?) but I think Skittle is probably male. If you look at his underside you should be seeing 2 pouches ABOVE the cloaca (vent line) and 2 pouches with an indentation in the middle BELOW it. On Pooka the area under the coaca should not have the indentation and will be smooth all the way across. The indentation on Skittle will be in between the 2 hemithingyes. Skittles jowls are starting to widen and within the next few months you should notice spike development on the tail. The spike development on the nuchal crest and the spine can be deceiving, but once the spikes on the tail begin to appear there's no mistaking the sex.

[Pooka]

Hi DM Ya it is still early for a definitive answer but the evidence strongly suggests male, guess we will see. I'll take a look at vents tonight if I have time when I get home, maybe even snag some pictures for future keepers to have onhand for comparison. Here is a comparison of Pooka and Skittle tail spikes. Already there is a big difference. Pooka has a round tail with a few tiny stubs poking out and skittle has very tall triangle shaped tail with lots of long wavy spikes. You can easily see the difference in the pictures, Pooka is top and Skittle bottom.

[katieashley]

Dosnt it suck not knowing!! If you want I can post some pics of our dragons femoral pores... the females always had some dark lines until about 20 inches in length and then they just dissapeared... and of course the males are dark...i'm sure you've seen them before, so just let me know if you want to see...

[Pooka]

Pics would be awesome. I am fairly confident Skittle is male at this point though. I would just like to help future keepers identify their dragons as early as possible.

[katieashley]

hey sorry i havent got pics up yet, i keep trying but my digi cam wont focus on the the dragons undersides for some silly reason,but i'll keep trying...