Sexing your Bearded Dragon
We have recieved many questions concerning sexing bearded dragons. Many breeders and sellers use a variety of methods to determine the sex of bearded dragons - from body style, head shape, behavior, looking for hemipenal bulges, to even inverting the hemipenes.
We do use a combination of these methods - but rely more heavily on looking for the presence or absence of hemipenal buldges.
And so... what we decided to do is take some good pictures of sub-adult (12 inch dragons) to show the physical difference between males and females. It can be really hard to tell the sex of a dragon that is smaller than 6 inches... but this method works well for dragons 6+ inches. Just remember that on a smaller dragon the bulges will be smaller!
Ready?
- Hold your dragon in one hand - supporting its belly and front limbs.If its a smaller dragon, rest it on 2-3 fingers with your thumb on its back.
- Take the tail (about half way) in your other hand and arch it straightup at about a 90 degree angle. Carefully! On a smaller dragon, you may need to 'gently twist' the tail by rolling it between your fingers & thumb to expose the 2 hemipenile bulges.
- Look to just above the vent for 2 bulges in a male dragon.
- Look just at the edge of the vent, in the center - for 1 bulge (or sometimes nothing) in a female dragon.
**WARNING - DO NOT bend the tail too far towards the dragons head! This could fracture the vertebra at the base of their tail and result in a visit to the vet!!
Sexing a Male Bearded Dragon -
Sexing a Female Bearded Dragon -
Notice 1 bulge...at the vent - BUT this is not always the case.
Translation to French :)