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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.

If you have an area where he/she can walk around, you might be able to go in for a feel when your turtle stops to look around. Posting pics would help us ID him/her for you, though this is not a case of changing genders. I do recall one RES whom we couldn't sex correctly, but it's usually obvious.

Been looking through a lot of galleries and the nails are longer than most females, but still shorter than the males pictures. Been a long time since I had taken a close look. As for the behaviors I guess it's just that females sometimes like to do the whole mating fluttering thing and I guess they can pleasure themselves if they feel like it. So I actually have a slut turtle! Sarcasm. I don't have a camera, but Wasabi is sure to have a cameo at some point. I knew it was not a gender change thing, I trust my herp buddy's word. It's just so weird to come out of no where, I've been explaining to all my friends in the form of a poorly constructed transgender joke (since they all believed he was male). I guess it makes sense at six years (s)he would reach sexual maturity vs reaching maturity younger as a male.

The thing that made me most deterrent about the idea, though, was that Wasabi's shell is more of a circular shape. Maybe females start that way then get the oval shape as they age? I guess that makes sense. Time will tell, eh?

I will be looking for more eggs, maybe get a dirt area set up... and in the meantime try and get the words "her" to come out of my mouth.

Honestly, I'm mostly thinking about how irritating it will be to keep everything clean with eggs popping out. @_@ Tricky turtle...

Can we see a pic

What is the length, width and height of shell?

Yeah, he's definitely a girl. I hadn't looked up pictures in forever. I feel a little silly now. Look at her short claws, cute rounded snout and short tail. I just always think of females as like... football shaped shells and HUGE. And now to the fun part!


Waving hello! The camera doesn't show the full beauty of her colors.


She's always excited and plays through the glass. My room mates thing I have problems. You might be able to see a little boo boo on her chin. There's a scratch on her shell too... I actually have a question about those... Her mood suddenly changed practically over night (I'm assuming because of the egg thing). While I was at work she knocked over her rock (I used to have the water level lower down and the rock on the bottom of the tank). Anyways, the rock was knocked over and she decided to bask on it sideways. I think she got the scratch from knocking the rock over and then she rested her head weird on the rock so it gave her a dark mark on her chin. It looked like when you indent like your arm or something or like what your legs look like after wearing too tight of jeans. Well anyways, the mark on her chin went from dark green to now a light color, like light green. She doesn't seem bothered by it. Needless to say I have the rock secured now with a rope and have been keeping a closer eye on her. I also have been changing her water more frequently to keep her little bruises clean. I hope I'm being a good owner!


Here's her from the top!


And from the side. Sorry the photos are big.

I've been trying to keep her nice and healthy. Does everything look alright about her? I don't get to see many other turtles for comparison. As for her other quirks, she is a well seasoned escape artist, will eat absolutely anything (if I let her), and has an affinity for fingers. Oh, and I haven't measured her, but she's probably about 6 inches.

Looks 100% like a female (well I mean putting asides the eggs lol)

Hey, give me a break. I shared pictures to share her. I've already determined her gender. Considering that the pictures of females I came across generally looked like:



I don't think it's too unacceptable I was confused until it was further investigated. We all learn what to look for. And now I know for the future. Not that I really need to know at this point... @_@

Don't worry, I didn't know what my RES and Cumberland Slider was until there were around 6 and I joined this forum

Lol that pic is a bad comparison. I dont think a single person on this forum owns a res that size and its rare to see them that size, one a few pictures out there of a res that big. Usually see the 8-9inch range for big as they get. You think your res doesnt look big but she looks pretty big to me haha. As for health. Shell looks good, she looks good. I see no problems.

That image actually originated from a member here... H15A5H1. Glad the gender issues are sorted out