Donatello :)

[Skyler Nell]

Eating some spring mix

When can you tell gender in desert tortoises??

His cleaned up enclosure

View attachment attachments_2010_07_12.zip
Taking a mud bath!

Thanks for looking

 

[Isa]

Very cute pics Donatello is adorable!

 

[Skyler Nell]

Very cute pics Donatello is adorable!

Thank you

 

[Tom]

Time to tell sex is variable, just like most torts. Some are obvious early on and others you have to wait until they are closer to maturity. I would guess female due to the relatively small tail and position of the cloacal opening. Is there any concavity toward the back of the plastron?

 

[Skyler Nell]

Time to tell sex is variable, just like most torts. Some are obvious early on and others you have to wait until they are closer to maturity. I would guess female due to the relatively small tail and position of the cloacal opening. Is there any concavity toward the back of the plastron?

Umm no i don't think so. The plastron looks looks completely flat to me right now. Is there any other angle of picture I could post that would help you determine better??

 

[Tom]

Time to tell sex is variable, just like most torts. Some are obvious early on and others you have to wait until they are closer to maturity. I would guess female due to the relatively small tail and position of the cloacal opening. Is there any concavity toward the back of the plastron?

Umm no i don't think so. The plastron looks looks completely flat to me right now. Is there any other angle of picture I could post that would help you determine better??

Its usually hard to tell from a pic, but every once and a while, if the light and the angle are just right, you can see it. The lady with the big male sulfate, who insisted it was a female, had a pic that showed it just right.

Donatello is still pretty young. Even if she is a he, you might not see any plastron concavity until "he's" closer to maturity. I've related the story of my two male sulcatas many times. Scooter was obviously a boy by two or three years old. Big head, big personality, big gular scutes, big anal scute "V", big honkin' tail. He was also much bigger and the concavity started pretty early on. Don't remember exactly when. It was such a "non-surprise" that I din't really note the date of it. Bert, on the other hand, was smaller, small headed, small gular scuted, more timid (or maybe just less boisterous), and had NO concavity whatsoever until around nine years old. He had the "V", but his tail was much smaller than Scooter's. The contrast was so striking that I was sure I had a male and female. Also Scooter started humping "her" at around 4 or 5 years old. You can still see the wear marks on Bert's carapace from Scooter's plastron and feet abrading it daily for five years. Now, at 12 year's old. Bert, will fight Scooter to the death on sight, flip him and refuses to be mounted. Bert has gotten much more outgoing and boisterous now too. He still has a small head and gular scutes, but he's now very concave and his tail is nearly the same size as Scooter's. Also, I have now seen Bert's equipment, since he started mounting Delores.

So, just be patient. You can guess all you want now, but in time it will become evident.

 

[Jacqui]

Love the expression she is giving you in that picture with her food.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I am so glad Donatello is doing so well. You have really done a nice job with him...

 

[Skyler Nell]

Thanks everyone!

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Thanks everyone!

 

[sushisurf13]

Very nice!! Good job Skyler!

 

[hali]

wow lovely - and what a clever way to measure him