Photo: Sexing my C.Orientalis

Ok I'm having issues sexing my newer newts.

This one is as far as I have been informed a captive bred 5/yo 'male' but I'm not sure. it has a funny little indentation on its tail and is much more ermmm.... rotund than my other adult. but s/he is also a much better eater.

I'm thinking it's a female.



And this one I call wild man... because when i first got him he ate the best of them all and looked like a beast doing so (i almost felt bad for the worms) and because since my sister got him for me from a petshop he is probably wild caught. I'm pretty sure he is a boy


here is a top view of both of them for comparison; you can see that salamander 1 has a much longer tail than wild man. and is much fatter

Have a look at this link

Caudata Culture Articles - Sexing

Heh, I actually did I wanted confirmation more so on the top one than the wild man.

Mainly because that one was sold to me as a Male from a member on this forum but from day one I second guessed it. It does have that funny dip on it's tail where it looks like it could have been a male then decided to grow a long girly tail...

Do Newts do that? Sex change?:wacko:

The first one is a female, almost for sure, and whoever told you it was CB was probably not being truthful...(not impossible, but unlikely...). The second one is a male, no doubt.

Broadly, no, newts can´t change gender, their sex is determined chromosomically. The very rare exceptions are such where environmental conditions (temperature) or certain hormones, affect genetic expression and cause the animal to develop the opposite gender than it is genetically. This seems to happen in a handful of species, but not H.orientalis as far as i know, plus it can only occur in developing animals, not in adults.

Thanks Azhael! I just needed some confirmation since I was given wrong information. The only reason I'm inclined to believe it may be CB is because with that one I was also given 2 juveniles like teeny tiny ones that were supposed to be offspring of that one. but it could also easily be a WC that bred. So really I have no idea for that lady... who now needs a name

also :
Are juveniles and efts the same thing? or is it a species based thing?

Eft is a term used for the terrestrial juveniles of Notophthalmus viridescens, primarily, but it can be used for any terrestrial juvenile of any newt species.