ManAlive85
Member
Hi all,
I’ve got a couple of Indian Stars, the eldest of which, Joni, is around two years old and weighs around 320g. Now, I know this is generally too young to gender accurately but I bought her on the understanding that she had been incubated for female and I’m starting to see signs that Joni may in fact be a Johnny. I wanted to run it past you guys for an expert opinion.
1. I’ve noticed in the past few months that her plastron is becoming noticeably concaved. Hopefully you can see from these photos.
2. Her tail seems to be growing longer and the supracaudal scute seems to be turning noticeably inward.
3. I keep the two torts separately but on the occasions when they’ve met, Joni has behaved extremely dominantly, chasing and biting the younger tortoise (also bought as a presumed female hatchling) incessantly. This, I believe, is unusual Star behaviour, especially amongst young females.
I really don’t mind either way but it’d be good to know as I would like to breed one day in the future. I’d be interested to see if more experienced keepers agree that these things signify a likelihood that Joni’s actually a dude or if it’s more probable that these are just physiological changes that can be expected from a young Star and that it’s too early to call a gender.
I’ve got a couple of Indian Stars, the eldest of which, Joni, is around two years old and weighs around 320g. Now, I know this is generally too young to gender accurately but I bought her on the understanding that she had been incubated for female and I’m starting to see signs that Joni may in fact be a Johnny. I wanted to run it past you guys for an expert opinion.
1. I’ve noticed in the past few months that her plastron is becoming noticeably concaved. Hopefully you can see from these photos.
2. Her tail seems to be growing longer and the supracaudal scute seems to be turning noticeably inward.
3. I keep the two torts separately but on the occasions when they’ve met, Joni has behaved extremely dominantly, chasing and biting the younger tortoise (also bought as a presumed female hatchling) incessantly. This, I believe, is unusual Star behaviour, especially amongst young females.
I really don’t mind either way but it’d be good to know as I would like to breed one day in the future. I’d be interested to see if more experienced keepers agree that these things signify a likelihood that Joni’s actually a dude or if it’s more probable that these are just physiological changes that can be expected from a young Star and that it’s too early to call a gender.