Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:20 pm
The long nails on males are secondary sex characteristics (and very attractive to females) and they shouldn't be cut. They flutter them against the females' cheeks in what is the beginning of the "mating dance." But males will flutter those long nails at each other, and if they're not sexually mature, it's more a display of dominance than mating.
BTW, also look at your turtles' tails--the males will have thick, sturdy-looking tails with the cloaca (anal vent) closer to the tip of the tail than the shell.
"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." -Antoine de Saint Exupery-