Help me with the sex of my Hermanns tortoise

Ambivalent.girl

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Hey everyone,

This is my tortoise Herman, he/she turned two years old this October. I'm still unsure of the sex, please help me out

Thanks x 20181102_172348.jpg 20181102_172357.jpg 20181102_172409.jpg 20181102_173914.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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Looks like a girl at the moment, but all babies look female until they reach sexual maturity, then the males' shells and tail change to show male attributes.
 

Gillian M

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Welcome to the forum.

Please give your tort daily soaks in warm water: he/she seems to be pyramiding, does he/she, @Yvonne G ?
 

Russian Tortilla

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Looking at their tale is a huge help. Normally a female would have a thicker tail, and opposite for male(thinner) I may be wrong but ideal I suppose.
 

Yvonne G

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I don't think that's exactly right. Here's a male tail:

DEJCa9G.jpg


and the picture the OP has shown is a female tail (or a very young tortoise tail)
 

Brimstonefox

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Hi. Sorry to muscle in on this thread but I can't work out how to start a new one. Can anyone sex my 20 month old Hermanns, please. See photos above. Cheers!
 

Brimstonefox

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I am by no means an expert but it looks female to me, but wait for someone else to have a look.
Thank-you! I've been calling it "him" since it was hatched so will need some adjustment! He/she was always the biggest of the clutch - Don't know if that's any indication.
 

Moozillion

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I have been soaking a few times a week, I will start doing it everyday. What else can I do for the pyramiding?
View attachment 255977
Hi, Ambivalent Girl! I have a Hermann's tortoise as well. I first got her when she was 4 inches long, and she's now a bit over 8 inches, with no pyramiding.
The things I did to keep her enclosure with healthy humidity levels was to first buy a little humidity/temperature gauge. This is nothing fancy or complicated- it looks a lot like a kitchen timer and is super easy to use. You can get them on Amazon. That enabled me to see if the humidity was low or good.
Her first enclosure was a 3 x 4 foot wooden, painted box that I had an acrylic lid covering about 75% of the top. I filled it with organic potting soil (making sure it had no perlite), and topped it with a layer oak leaves. Then, I would get a bucket of warm water, and using a trowel to pull back the top layer of soil, I would dig a trench almost to the bottom of the enclosure. I would pour in some water, then cover it back up, which left damp soil BENEATH the surface, but dry soil on top. The water would naturally vaporize and evaporate UP through the soil and into the air. This is also how soil works in nature: the top is dry, and when you dig down in it, you often find it's damp. She could dig herself down into whatever area she wanted: very damp, slightly damp, or dry. She ALWAYS chose one of the damp areas. I would keep an eye on the little humidity gauge, and would rehydrate her enclosure whenever it needed it- maybe once a week.
Her second and third enclosures have been outside, and since we live in south Louisiana, where it's always very humid, I haven't had to worry about humidity when she's outside.

Getting adequate UVB light is also very important. Again, I am fortunate that we live in the Deep South, so she gets flooded with natural UVB for the 9 months that she's outside. I make sure there's lots of plants growing her her outdoor enclosure so that she can shade herself as much or as little as she feels like.
I hope this helps. :)
 

TammyJ

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Hi, Ambivalent Girl! I have a Hermann's tortoise as well. I first got her when she was 4 inches long, and she's now a bit over 8 inches, with no pyramiding.
The things I did to keep her enclosure with healthy humidity levels was to first buy a little humidity/temperature gauge. This is nothing fancy or complicated- it looks a lot like a kitchen timer and is super easy to use. You can get them on Amazon. That enabled me to see if the humidity was low or good.
Her first enclosure was a 3 x 4 foot wooden, painted box that I had an acrylic lid covering about 75% of the top. I filled it with organic potting soil (making sure it had no perlite), and topped it with a layer oak leaves. Then, I would get a bucket of warm water, and using a trowel to pull back the top layer of soil, I would dig a trench almost to the bottom of the enclosure. I would pour in some water, then cover it back up, which left damp soil BENEATH the surface, but dry soil on top. The water would naturally vaporize and evaporate UP through the soil and into the air. This is also how soil works in nature: the top is dry, and when you dig down in it, you often find it's damp. She could dig herself down into whatever area she wanted: very damp, slightly damp, or dry. She ALWAYS chose one of the damp areas. I would keep an eye on the little humidity gauge, and would rehydrate her enclosure whenever it needed it- maybe once a week.
Her second and third enclosures have been outside, and since we live in south Louisiana, where it's always very humid, I haven't had to worry about humidity when she's outside.

Getting adequate UVB light is also very important. Again, I am fortunate that we live in the Deep South, so she gets flooded with natural UVB for the 9 months that she's outside. I make sure there's lots of plants growing her her outdoor enclosure so that she can shade herself as much or as little as she feels like.
I hope this helps. :)
Moozillion, hi there, been a while!!!

This is really a helpful post by you. As for the sexing, it has already been said that it's best to wait until the tortoise is older and bigger to know for sure. At this point, maybe it's best tp post a picture since it's been a long time.
 

Moozillion

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Moozillion, hi there, been a while!!!

This is really a helpful post by you. As for the sexing, it has already been said that it's best to wait until the tortoise is older and bigger to know for sure. At this point, maybe it's best tp post a picture since it's been a long time.
Oops!
I was looking through the Hermann’s section and saw this- didn’t notice the date it was posted!?
 

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