My Tilley, African Sulcata 14 months old, is probably a girl which is totally fine with me! Already has the symptoms of your average teenage girl who rebels and acts silly. Assuming of course I'm "sexing" Tilley correctly...the shape of the shell about where the tail is (concave vs convex). She's roughly 6 1/2 inches now

(10-28-2012 11:56 AM)IowaGuy28 Wrote:  My Tilley, African Sulcata 14 months old, is probably a girl which is totally fine with me! Already has the symptoms of your average teenage girl who rebels and acts silly. Assuming of course I'm "sexing" Tilley correctly...the shape of the shell about where the tail is (concave vs convex). She's roughly 6 1/2 inches now

Let's see a pic of the underside.

The concavity that you refer to happens all across the middle of the plastron. The shape of the anal scutes is a wide "V" for males and a "U" shape for females. Gular size is also a factor, but that really only shows up on adult males and is not reliable for small ones. The main indicator for younger ones is tail size. Females have a tiny little nub, while males have a big long tail that they usually keep tucked along the back of one of their legs.

You probably won't be able to tell on one the size of yours, but you can post a plastron pic showing the tail and we can give it a guess.

Having difficulty uploading a pic I just took but from what you've described, the shell near the anas area is a much more defined "V" than a "U" but the tail is more short than long. Haha, so I'm not sure what to think now

Its too young to tell. They all have the "V" and a short tail as youngin's. The traits I described to you develop over the years and are obvious in a full adult.

Go to tinypic.com and upload any size photo. Then copy/paste the IMG code into a forum post. Really simple. No fees. No accounts. No hassles.

Also, the concave plastron doesn't appear for quite a while. Long before the plastron develops the concavity, you will be flashed if it is a male.

Good photographs may help. Some are very easily sexed at that size. Most of my sulcatas that are female look obvious when they are in the 4-6" range. Others, less so. Had one ivory het male not show masculine tail development and anal scute spreading until after he had passed 12" scl. I have seen adult males with flat plastrons, adult females with large projecting gulars, and even the rare female with wide-spread anal scutes. I have also had females of other species (Greek and yellow foot, mainly) with very masculine plastron concavities...lay...eggs.

I have on on-the-fence 10" animal right now that has a feminine tail, flat plastron, short gulars, and wide anal scutes. I may just end up getting shim scoped because I risk throwing away a car's worth of value if I make a mistake. My gut says male, but I need to tread carefully.