Leopard Gecko “boners”?

[joujou_43]

Hello, So this might be a really stupid question. I have a male leopard gecko that is about to turn a year old next month. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that he was licking his vent area which I’ve never seen him do before. i picked him up and checked underneath his tail but couldn’t see anything unusual so I thought I’d keep an eye to see if he done it again, he didn’t. I caught him licking his vent again yesterday and when I went to pick him up I noticed two string like things that were hanging out just at the base of his tail. I read online about prolapsed hemipenes (which panicked me a bit) but I read about sugar baths and decided to give it a go the next evening to see If it helped. After letting him soak in the sugar bath for about 8 minutes, I took him out and tried massaging that area with a Q tip with vaseline on but it was still dangling (see picture). I put him back in his tank and I was planning on calling the vets in the morning but I just went over to check on him and what was dangling has completely disappeared (I guess retracted). Now I’m interested to know whether this is normal for a male leopard gecko to do as they are just about to turn a year old, a sort of sign that they are maturing? Or is this something that I should be concerned about and keep an eye on?

*Just a side note, the whole time he had this part dangling out he was acting completely normal, he was eating normally and full of life. It didn’t seem to bother him at all.

 

[acpart]

It's hard to tell f rom the picture, but I think possibly those two things are not his hemipenes (which tend to be pinkish and a bit thicker). They look like sperm plugs. These are white jelly-like deposits that are sometimes found at the end of each hemipenis. He may have been licking his vent area to remove them.

Aliza

 

[Young Geckoboy]

I don't know whether or not it's a normal thing for leopard geckos. My two males haven't done that, and one is three and the other is one. However, my older one has licked down there to clean it a bit I guess. But there was never anything there. I definitely think Aliza had it right about this one.

 

[Josh]

Any updates for us @joujou_43 ? How's he doing today?

 

[joujou_43]

Hi sorry for the late reply, he’s doing fine. This hasn’t happened again (not that I’ve noticed anyway). Thank you all for the help