Photo Gallery :: Here's a poll: Male or Female?

[psumichael]

20 year old RES. Short claws make me think it's a female but the turtle is only a bit over 6 inches long. Unfortunately it was kept in a 10 gallon aquarium for most of its life. Maybe that could be the reason for the smaller size, if it is in fact a female. I've now moved it to a 75 gallon aquarium and it's doing relatively well.

Pictures:

[taurusgirl]

tail says male but nails say female sorry could not help more

[blackforces get you]

the nails might have been cut? so it looks female from the nails. flat plastron can also show a sign for being female since male plastron's curve to the shape of a turtles shell for mating. turtles tail is kinda short and not as fat as a male turtle... so im saying female as well. i cant believe that gorgeous turtle is 20!

[Jaysea]

I'm leaning more toward female myself. Could we get a few more pics of it to make certain?

[psumichael]

I'm leaning more toward female myself. Could we get a few more pics of it to make certain?

Sure....what type of pictures would help?

Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/user/arubaiguana?feature=mhum

[Jaysea]

Video was great for viewing the tail. The position of cloaca says male, it is definitely well down the tail. You'll know for sure if he ever shows you his junk since male turtles have a tendency to do that at times lol. Also you can fill your water alot more then that, RES love to swim and are great swimmers. he'll really enjoy the extra swimming room also.

[steve]

Tough call, but I'm leaning towards female. Male would have a longer nose, longer claws and more likely to be melanistic.

[psumichael]

Hmmm...so it seems the respondents are roughly split between male and female.

As for water height....yep, going to raise the level significantly this week. Planning to get some cork bark to replace the rocks for a basking surface. And sand is going in this week also. One of the reasons the water level is low is because, unfortunately, for 20 years this turtle was in only 3 or so inches of water. Didn't want to throw him/her into deep water right away. He/she is now doing well with buoyancy and swimming though!