General Care Discussion :: Sexing and advice

[hoshiko]

Hello,

I am new to the forums but I have been a visitor of this webpage for a long, long time Actually since I got my pet turtles Morty and Cake. They have lived almost five beautiful years by my side and I have seen them grow from the size of a one dollar coin (they are rescue turtles, that's why I got them so tiny).

I have never had any issues with any of them being aggressive towards each other until yesterday. When Morty bit Cake's tail really when trying to get a bite from a strawberry. It hurt me to see them like that, so I separated them for the rest of the day so that they calmed down. I checked Cake for any sign of injury but luckily had nothing.

Just now Morty bit Cake's tail again. This time for no reason whatsoever. What really disturbs me is that a black intestine type thing came out of Cake's tail and back inside when I separated them. I am wondering if they are trying to mate or something is wrong. I noticed that I also have never sexed them, so I decided to do so in order to make sense of Morty's actions.

However I am having trouble doing so, because this is my first time. I have uploaded pictures so that you guys can help me. If it helps, they are both the same age and Cake is 4.5in long and Morty is 5.5 in long. Also Morty is the one I'm holding over the sink.

Please also advise me on whether I should separate them permanently. And how I should do it. Thank you very much.

[CactusJohn5]

first thing looking at the pictures, BOTH female!

then i read your post. "black intestine thing" if it came out of the tail is the turtles .... penis. so that would make him a male, lol, seems VERY odd to have one of those a male, usually the males tail is MUCH longer and fatter, also the nails are about double the length of a female!


Now as for your aggression. habitat pictures or just explination of your setup
How many gallons? Just from your size explination. 5.5+4.5 = 10 inches, 10x10gallons per inch = 100 gallons minimum
How big is the basking platform?
Are they getting proper nutrition and lighting?
Sounds like you are feeding them together, and one (morte)is "dominant" when feeding, that is part of the size difference.
You can try to remove one of them and feed them sperate for a bit to see if that is the issue.

[steve]

Welcome to the forum. Morty and Cake are both males. Biting can cause a lot of damage, and a nasty bite on a exposed penis might even need surgery/amputation. My advice is that you need to separate them permanently. Even if they seem to get a long, fighting can escalate very quickly and you might not be there to separate.

If you have the space, get a nice large tank that you can divide so you can share heaters, filter and bulbs. Other solutions would be separate tanks or rehoming one of your turtles.

[Gurgi's Mom]

What would you say is the earliest one could accurately sex a turtle? I've read 4 inches... Could it be done earlier?

[steve]

It should be between 3-4 inches and thats when the male characteristics show up.

[CactusJohn5]

It should be between 3-4 inches and thats when the male characteristics show up.

Besides the fact they stated one had a penis, from the pictures, what makes you say they are BOTH males?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

It should be between 3-4 inches and thats when the male characteristics show up.

Besides the fact they stated one had a penis, from the pictures, what makes you say they are BOTH males?

The length and size of tails scream male. Way way to fat/thick and length is really good on them too. Tails on females. The opening(cloaca) stays inside or just a tiny bit outside the edge of the shell. You can tell in the pics the cloacas are easily past the edge of the shell by 1-2inches