what kind do we have?

So my girlfriend and I just got a juvenile tegu that was advertised as a columbian black and white. it was only $35 and already pretty tame. what im wondering is how to tell if its a golden tegu or b&w? The pattern has more of a yellow look on its body, and its tail is pure white. The background is jet black on the entire lizard. not sure of the sex, and its probably almost 2 feet long.

Also i have seen a lot of discrepencies in the maximum size listed for tegus... how big can i really expect this columbian to get? also any easy way to figure out what sex it is?

thanks for the help!

The golden tegu, and the Colombian B&W tegu are the same animal: Tupinambis teguixin. There is some variability in coloring, which helps account for the different common names (they are also called black tegus and common tegus). I don't know if these color variations are related to locality.

I found them fairly easy to sex visually, once mature - differences in build & structure, tail appearance etc, but I have heard claims that they can also be probed (I don't know if that is true, as I have never tried it)

I think the size discrepencies you mentioned are related to the various species of tegu. I believe that male common tegus will run in the 3-3.5 ft range, females being a bit smaller.