sex of baby russians

[dariceboij]

Breeders have you incubated at temperatures meant for one sex and the hatchlings turned out to be the other? I am curious as I am looking for a male and although I know there are no guarantees i was curious how well the incubation temps worked at determining the sex of the babies.

 

[WithLisa]

Incubating males is easy. Incubating females is more difficult, there can always be a few males among them.

 

[dariceboij]

So you're saying the odds are good that a Russian baby is a male?

 

[WithLisa]

If the breeder really tried to get males, then the odds are very good (I would say 99.9%).

 

[Tom]

The only species that has actually been studied and has the known correct incubation temps for males and females is sulcatas. We can thank Richard Fife for that info as he sponsored the study and supplied the eggs.

All other species are more guess work. I have a whole bunch of 2 year old russians that I'm raising right now that were incubated for female and some others that were incubated in the middle. In another few years, I will have some idea of how predictable the sexes are with russians.

I have incubated sulcatas on the high side of the range, which should have given me all females, and ended up with mixed sexes. You really need lab grade consistent equipment and almost no one incubates eggs in anything like that or even with accurate, calibrated thermometers.

I bought 8 star tortoises that were incubated for female, and so far, three of them are male. Still waiting to see on the others.

In the real world, you can increase your chances of one sex or the other with temp sexing, but as you already noted, there is no guarantee.

 

[dariceboij]

Thank you for your responses I ask because I have so far only noticed Russian breeders incubating for females. I contacted lllreptile since they are the only site right now who even have Russian babies available and they did not know the incubation temps of the breeder. I myself have no intention of breeding Russians and would prefer a male.