Curious what seller meant...

[Michelle85]

I got my sulcata's from a friend of a friend that owns and breeds sulcata's. I remember her saying that they should be male? She mumbled something about bred to be male or something lol I was just confused so I didn't ask questions maybe I should have. Could she have known that? Or was she guessing?

 

[dmmj]

you can incubate tortoises at certain temperatures to produce a higher percentage of a certain gender but there's no guarantee.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Heat.
Whoops. I got beat out.

 

[Michelle85]

So there is a good chance mine are both male..... At what age will I be able to tell? You look at the bottom of the shell? If it curves in then it's male right?

 

[dmmj]

unless you know the precise temperature the eggs were incubated at it's a crapshoot both male or female one male one female.

 

[SGT Fish]

Age doesnt matter as much as size does. 15 inches seems to be about the magic number. My rescue is almost 12 inches right now and I still dont know. The other way to know is if they start laying eggs or humping something. But up until they are big then they all look female

 

[Tom]

So there is a good chance mine are both male..... At what age will I be able to tell? You look at the bottom of the shell? If it curves in then it's male right?

Usually you can tell by 3-4 years old, but its size, not age. It depends on how fast yours grow and what kind of a start they had. Most breeders start them too dry and it can slow their growth tremendously if they survive it.

On larger adult males, yes the plastron gets concave, but the earliest indicator will be tail size. Males have big long tails and females have tiny little nubs. In a mature animal, gular scute size and anal scute shape are also indicators.

Humping is not an indicator of sex. Both sexes will do it. Usually during their third year, young males will start everting their penis. "Flashing" as we call it, so if you see this, you will know you have a male. If you don't see this, you either have a female or you have a male that you have not seen flash.

How many sulcatas did you get? They should not be kept in pairs. Trios or more is usually fine, but not pairs.

Have you seen these:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

There is a lot of old, outdated, incorrect info still circulating around out there, especially with breeders for some reason. Hope these links can help.