My turtle is six years old (or a bit more) and has showed all signs of being male. Longer nails, rounded (not oval) shell, flutters, and I've even caught him pleasuring himself. New meaning to awkward turtle. He has always been notorious for being weird such as escaping his tank when it seems like he only could have levitated, and once he went into a deep trance I literally thought he was dead. But this takes the cake. So I got up this morning and went to feed him and right there in the tank was an egg. Yeah, before anyone says "duh, now stop calling it a he", Wasabi can be called a he if she wants to. I wont love him less. So I'm getting over the shock of him being female. But now that I'm over that, I'm worried for his health. I've read a lot into this and I suspect that there may be more eggs. He's usually pretty active in his tank, and still is, but he is digging around with his back feet and seems rather agitated still. I tried feeling for eggs like in a video that was provided in another post, but his legs were being protective and I couldn't. He also started getting spastic. He has never liked being picked up and has always hissed, sometimes tried to scratch... But this was different. He was very agitated and was trying to lash out at me. Poor guy!
I put him in his land only tank for now, as I have read is good for turtles that possibly need to pass more eggs. No dirt/sand whatever because I can't get anything this late. What's best for Wasabi right now? Is it pretty common for a turtle to show all the signs of being male, but be female?
I asked my friendly neighborhood herp expert and he said that it's not unheard of for reptiles to change gender or be transgender, but he had never heard of it in red ear sliders. Besides it just being unusual, he didn't have much to say.
