General Care Discussion :: Trying to sex my turtles

[Erroneous]

Buddy, my oldest turtle is about 8 or 9 months old now, while Spike is about 7 months old. When I took Spike to the vet a few weeks ago to be treated for a blood infection, the doctor said Spike was a male. I'm not sure about Buddy, but due to his recent and somewhat promiscuous behavior lately with Spike, I'm wondering what gender they are.

Here are some pictures:
Buddy



Spike



Sorry about the pictures of Spike. He has never been very photogenic.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Buddy's tail is impressive & based on that & the facial expression, I would guess male. I would keep an eye on him over the next 6 months & see if those front nails grow. I would guess that he is starting to go thru puberty right now. The tail is usually the first sign, followed by the front claws.

With Spike, I would like to see him/her grow at least another 1/2-1 inch before making a decision. I think Spike is still too small, based on his/her size in your hand.

[Tenodera]

I don't think Buddy is a YBS... Can you post pictures of his face?
He looks like a River cooter to me, maybe the same species as mine!

[Erroneous]

I guess he could be a cooter. The place I got him from listed him as a "Yellow Belly". They also had a florida red belly turtle, but Buddy has a yellow belly.

[Tenodera]

LOL the place where I got Serra she was labelled as a YBS, too. Buddy looks like a female Eastern River Cooter.

Er...She'll grow huge, like 12-16 inches.

[Erroneous]

Yeah. After looking online, Buddy does look a lot like a Cooter. Unfortunately ATP only had information on the Florida Cooter when I was trying to look up his species. Now I am thinking he may be a Cooter, though I am not sure what kind.

[Erroneous]

I'm posting some pretty decent pictures to help identify exactly what Buddy's genus/species is. The more I look at him now, the more orange his belly looks, which leads me to suspect maybe a Florida Red Belly. I kinda feel bad thinking he was a different genus this whole time.

BTW, click on the picture to get a bigger one. It will also lead you to my turtle gallery on Picasa galleries.



The stripe down his hind foot leads me to believe he could be an Eastern River Cooter, as stated on http://www.turtlepuddle.org/american/cooter.html

[Tenodera]

lol it's an Eastern River Cooter, same species as my lil Serra!

You'll need something like 150 gallon tank for her when she's grown up, though...lol

[Erroneous]

I plan on getting a pond eventually...when I graduate college and get a house. Good to see someone with the same species as me, though! I might have to separate Buddy and Spike in the future since it is looking like Buddy will be 2-3 times large than Spike if Spike is a male.

[Tenodera]

Buddy is a female, just to answer your question...lol

[Erroneous]

I plan on getting a pond eventually...when I graduate college and get a house. Good to see someone with the same species as me, though! I might have to separate Buddy and Spike in the future since it is looking like Buddy will be 2-3 times large than Spike if Spike is a male. My only thing is that I don't think Buddy has the "C-shaped" markings that distinguish Eastern Rivers from Floridas. Here is a picture of Buddy and Spike when they were very young, and there don't appear to be any C's.


Thanks for sexing Buddy for me. Of course, you know, this gives me 2 dilemmas. 1) What is Buddy doing to Spike (see my first post, click on the link for the promiscuous behavior) and 2) What should I rename Buddy?

[Tenodera]

Hmm then again, by looking at the carapace patterns it doesn't look like a pure Eastern river cooter. Buddy looks like a mix of hieroglyphic cooter and Eastern river cooter.

Here's a picture of my Serra when she was a baby just for comparison