Male or female? Three years old desert tortoise

dmmj

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Yes need to be much bigger to sex
 

Yvonne G

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They all have female characteristics until they get bigger. So, at this size the best guess is it might be female, but then again, it might be male.
 

kazjimmy

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They all have female characteristics until they get bigger. So, at this size the best guess is it might be female, but then again, it might be male.

So those het sulcata male or female pick were fake posted on floridaiguana website? I am super confuse since I have sulcata for over 15 years. How could they identify those male or female when they were only 4 inch or so.
 

Yvonne G

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The seller is probably going by the incubation temperature.
 

Tom

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Breeders can influence the sex of the babies by adjusting the temperature in the incubator up or down a little. Low end of the range produces males. High end of the range produces females. This has only been studied and documented in sulcatas. The actual temps are not known in other species and it frequently does produce the desired results. I bought 14 platynota that were all incubated for female and 8 are male. G-Stars bought 15 and all 15 were male.

So when these "temp sexed" babies go up for sale, the people selling will often refer to them as "temp sexed for female" or "temp sexed for male". Its not a guarantee, but you are more likely to get what you are after if they were incubated at a given temp.

The DT in your pics is looking female at this stage, but its too early to call it for sure.
 

kazjimmy

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Since it’s a DT. I have no interest no experience no confidence to keep it. Give up the adoption.
 

bioteach

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We had a hatchling that we were certain was female. Imagine our surprise when "she" turned 13. "Her" name was Timi and when "she" came out of hibernation her 13th summer "she" was Timmy. We brought her/him to the vet for her/his pre-hibernation check a simple probe revealed a penis!

Be patient - you have several years of guessing before you can be truly sure.
 

Coco Channell

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Looks like my female Pixie. She has long toe nails. The females dig the burrows
 
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