General Care Discussion :: troubling sexing turtle

[jonwoodchile]

Hi,

I have a red-ear whose pleston measures approximately six inches. I have read a number of articles describing how to sex these animals and I am still unsure whether my turtle is male or female. The lower surface is very flat. The three middle claws are much longer than the first and fifth. The tail I would say is of medium length and has the anal opening past the edge of the shell, in the middle of the total length of the tail.

I have attached a link to some photos for anyone to take a look:

http://www.pisciculturas.cl/mojo/redear.html


Cheers,
Jon

[coreyvht]

my guess is male

[jonwoodchile]

even though the bottom surface is completely flat?

[Seroster]

I would almost certainly say that's a male, the female claws aren't nearly as long.

[LittleResQNorth]

Ya thats a boy.

[SINI5T3R]

thats a boy for sure, his nails are super long

[steve]

Male. The male's curved plastron really applies to tortoises who need a bit of stability when mating.

[jozzep]

I find the curved plastron theory to be totally bogus. I have a female stinkpot that has a super curved plastron and none of my males have it.

[worldpeace]

With those huge nails and tails..definitely a male.

[Diamondbacks4Life]

I find the curved plastron theory to be totally bogus. I have a female stinkpot that has a super curved plastron and none of my males have it.

Your males have to have some type of curve in there shell. All stinkpots get the the curve but i would disagree with you and say the curve applys to stinkpot males. All my males have had slight curved curved shell then the females. Not very significant but you tell. Stinkpots mate like torts so he has the curve. The larger the male the more of a curve they had.

[worldpeace]

Nice picture