Sexing Caiman

The correct identification of the sex of your crocodilian will only be necessary if you wish to breed them. With all the rescues and animals needing to be rescued and the low price for spectacled caiman, there really is no reason or need for the average owner to breed caiman.  But knowing how to find the sex of your animal is a handy tool.

An experienced herper will have a better idea of what to look for when determining the sex, and with the help of the information and photographs below, this should give you a good idea on how to do this yourself, if you need to.

A word of caution:  The safest way is the pinky probe, which cannot be done until the animal is about 3 feet long.

Visual Identification

The first method is to visually see the male sex organ.  This can be done by holding the animal up while it is angry.  Either you've invaded its space or it was feeding or mating or you were doing maintenance and taking too much time. But if it's angry and you are able to handle it by picking it up, you will be able to tell if it is a male, easily.

Other than lifting an angry croc up by its neck while it's trying to breed or eat, an easier way would be by visual inspection.  When your animal is out of the water and secured there are other ways to determine the sex.

Popping

The next method of sex determination is called "popping".  You use pressure on the tail to "pop" out the male's penis (if it's there).  I highly advise against this method.  One mistake and you have irreparably harmed your animal.  Also, it can only be used on young caiman, like hatchlings or yearlings.  However, for educational purposes and to be able to understand what a trained herper is doing, I will explain "popping".

You bend the tail towards the animal's belly so that you compress the cloaca.  Next, using your thumb and index finger spread the cloaca apart from the sides and then apply pressure to both sides so that the cloaca starts to spread outwards and the tip of male's penis should literally pop out. If you don't see a penis then it's probably a female.

penis equals male

Tweezer Method

Next, if you absolutely, positively, without a doubt, need to know the sex of your hatchling there is the tweezer method.  Again, one wrong move and the animal will have no sex.  So wait if you can.  For educational purposes, the tweezer method will also be explained.

Take a pair of tweezers, KY the tip, slide the tweezers into the hatchlings cloaca about one half (1/2) inch and open the tweezers, to open the cloaca.

Shine a very powerful flashlight into the cloaca and see if you see a penis.  If not, it's probably a female.

tweezers spreading the cloaca

Pinky Probe

This action involves inserting your pinky into the caiman's cloaca and reaching forward, toward the animal's belly and feeling for the penis. The male has a single penis, unlike other reptiles, that starts at the edge of the cloaca and curls from the belly toward the opening, so that the head lies directly beneath the opening. So, if you feel a fleshy tube as you stick your finger in its cloaca, and reach forward toward the belly, you've got a male.

cloaca

male

male cloaca protrusion

Disclaimer:  Your results may vary.  Don't try this at home. Attempts at sexing animals by anyone other than an experienced herpatologist may be harmful to the animal.  This page for educational purposes only.