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[Nephrurus]

Righto, heres some tips how to sex scaly foots (Pygopus). I assume it works the same with Delma and Burtons. Danny explained to me exactly how to sex properly, so I took some photos.

It's all about hunting for the paracloacal spur in males. They usually twist and spin and try and rip themselves in two, and if you're unlucky they'll drop their tail on you. This is because almost all scaly foots in captivity are wild caught. I'm lucky enough to have 2 captive bred animals to photograph. Now, being very gentle, handle the scaly foot until it sticks it's little flap in the air (they wave at you). Underneath will be a small scale that is much larger than the surrounding ones. It's the paracloacal spur. Only the males have these. They also have slightly larger "flaps". This technique works for Pygopus, I'm not sure about Delmas and Burtons (Danny? could you shed some light?).








So there you go. I used a paint brush to gentle hold the flap back for photos.

-H