Husband wants to probe my leos...

[swinginuttersgrrl]

Is this necessary or recommended? just curious. I'm not sure if he's just probe happy now that he has started probing his snakes, or if he's right in saying that people probe leos when they're having breeding problems. We are not having breeding problems as we are not currently breeding, but since we are planning to in the future he seems to think that I will have all kinds of issues and will need his help to know if it is because I somehow missexed an individual animal. any input will be appreciated.
Thanks
~K

 

[BrilliantEraser]

Noooooo! Don't probe! There's no need to. A fully-grown male or female is visually sexable by the presence or absence of hemipenes. Probing could cause serious damage to the gecko in question.

 

[T-ReXx]

Um, there's no reason to probe sex leopard geckos, sexually mature animals are very obvious. And probing could definately hurt a young animal. Probing generally is only done in snakes, few people probe lizards, as most are easily sexed visually. I would not recommend doing so. Males have obvious bulges and femoral pores.

 

[JordanAng420]

Please don't let your husband probe the leo. It will cause unnecessary stress, poses a risk of perforation and/or pain if not performed correctly, and will cause your gecko to drop it's tail most likely. If you're having sexing problems, post pictures here, and we can help you. Leopard geckos are sexually dimorphic, and most (if not all) snakes are not.

 

[swinginuttersgrrl]

thanks for the quick replies, I didn't think it sounded quite right, but figured I'd check before continuing the discussion with him. So far we have had no issues with visual sexing, or at least, I have not had issues, seems pretty straight forward to me, but it seemed worth looking into so its not just my word against his.

 

[acpart]

You can always tell him that he can probe the geckos after he probes himself (as it will do the same amount of good).

Aliza

 

[thegeckoguy23]

Haha Aliza that made me laugh.




Jake

 

[gothra]

I'm sorry but this sounds like he's wanting to probe for fun...

 

[acpart]

It reminds me a little of my daughter who had to learn to do blood tests for her job and now looks eagerly at my sons' veins.

Aliza

 

[M_surinamensis]

Just to clarify because a few people used soft language and may have been slightly unclear...

Probing lizards will do nothing except cause harm. They can not be sexed in this manner and the muscles around their cloaca are substantially stronger than those of a snake- the only way to get a probe into them is to force it, which will without question, cause physical damage.

It is not that it is unnecessary, although it is, it is not done specifically because it will cause perforations, punctures and tearing. Trying to probe a leopard gecko- or any other lizard for that matter- is animal abuse.

Take the probes away from your husband. The fact that he even thought it might be a good idea to probe the leopard geckos is a clear indication that he is not knowledgeable enough to use them properly and responsibly. He's going to hurt something if he's sticking them in animals without knowing what he is doing.