male or female
- Thread starter Karen(pebbles)
- Start date
I didn't think you could tell the sex of a tortoise until they were around 4 years old, but today somebody has suggested that my tort is a female, s/he is just 21 months old.
Anybody?
TheLastGreen
Well-Known Member
Hmm, I'm not sure @zovick @Tom @maggie3fan @ZenHerper @Yvonne G
It does seem this may be a matter of debate, perhaps the development of features like tail length or plastron concavity etc is linked to reproductive development, but this may be an easy method to nail it? I'm not sure if lower plastron development and geometry of the scutes may be linked, but I'm no expert ofcourse.
Is this Pebbles?
It does seem this may be a matter of debate, perhaps the development of features like tail length or plastron concavity etc is linked to reproductive development, but this may be an easy method to nail it? I'm not sure if lower plastron development and geometry of the scutes may be linked, but I'm no expert ofcourse.
Is this Pebbles?
Yes this is pebbles, imo i understood that torts couldn't be sexed until they're around 4 years old, but today somebody here on the forum says s/he's female, i'm not convinced and thought i'd throw it out there to see what others would say.
TheLastGreen
Well-Known Member
Mine is about 8 months, so might aswell add, this is quite intresting!
My female leopard has horizontal lower scutes, like the diagram I saw. She is 4 years old and female, from the tail you can see it. The horizontal scutes are present by the tail, like the diagram suggests, so it may be true? Perhaps other members can add to this so we can determine if it is true?
My female leopard has horizontal lower scutes, like the diagram I saw. She is 4 years old and female, from the tail you can see it. The horizontal scutes are present by the tail, like the diagram suggests, so it may be true? Perhaps other members can add to this so we can determine if it is true?
hopefully somebody can give us an answer to this, but i'm still not convinced the sex can be identified until they're around 4 years old, unless of course we get FLASHED as others have done ? ?
TheLastGreen
Well-Known Member
Yeah??? That's the thing, I feel the same with my tort, he is young, but you never now if he may have a suprise he's waiting to show in the next soak???
(I'm clearly asleep, forgot to tag @ZEROPILOT @Toddrickfl1 @jcase @Jacqui @jaizei , I think the more members way in, the more collective torts with established genders will be taken into account, to correlate the results)
(I'm clearly asleep, forgot to tag @ZEROPILOT @Toddrickfl1 @jcase @Jacqui @jaizei , I think the more members way in, the more collective torts with established genders will be taken into account, to correlate the results)
They all look female when they are juveniles. The male secondary sexual characteristics don't start to develop until they get older and the hormones start flowing.
TheLastGreen
Well-Known Member
@Tom I think she referred to this
The person said the tort was 9 months old when the... male parts came out. Do you think this is a coincidence?
The person said the tort was 9 months old when the... male parts came out. Do you think this is a coincidence?
All of those characteristics in the diagrams above are secondary sexual characteristics. Obvious on full adults, but all the juveniles tend to look female-ish.
If a young male everts his penis, then you have your answer before any of the secondary sexual characteristics begin to show. It is unusual for one to do this as early as 9 months, but not impossible. At 9 months I would be concerned about a prolapse. I would verify that it was a penis and not something else.
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I've got about the worst track record of guessing sexes in the entire group
This is what caused me the confusion, but deep down i kind of knew it was too soon to tell what sex my tort is ,
That is only because I refrain from guessing until they are older, and instead make jokes that are probably only funny to me!
Thankyou Tom, i kind of guessed this but somebody commented on a pic of mine saying that they thought my tort looked like a female.
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It is early to tell for sure, but if I had to guess today, I would call it a male. Reason: the tail is looking a bit long and thick for that of a female.
I think it is looking like a young male.
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