Sexing my Russian Steppe Tortoise?

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adamkenn

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Hello can anyone help by telling me what sex my Russian Steppe Tortoise is?
 

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Yvonne G

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Hi adamken, and welcome to the Forum!

The way we determine the gender of a tortoise is by looking at the underside including the tail. I'm going to GUESS (because I can't really see the tail too good) that you have a female.
 

BodaTort1

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Hi Adamkenn.. When I am determining a tortoise is male /female I look at 4 things
I look at the size of gulars, males are typically longer. I look at plastron.. If flat it is female if concave it is male. I look at the tail like Yvonne said short stubby one female long tail tucked along side one leg male. And finally I look at plastron around tail. If wide it is male and narrow female. Hopes this and some pics help. Also torties are difficult to determine till they are 4-6 inches/ juvenile.


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Yvonne G

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Hi Cari:

We don't want to confuse our original poster by comparing the differences in the sexes between russian tortoises and redfooted tortoises. There is no comparison. In the russian tortoise, the male plastron is flat as is the female's. There isn't that much of a difference in the anal scutes. Really the biggest difference between the male and female russian tortoise is the tail.
 

adamkenn

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Cheers guys, after reading your posts I have come to the conclusion it's a male due the tail being off to one side and very slight concave plastron at the rear, if I can get a better picture of the tail I will post this in due course.

Thank you
 

biochemnerd808

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In Russians there really is no concavity of the plastron. The big difference is that females have a short, fat, stubby tail, where the vent (opening) is shaped like a pucker, or an asterisk (*). The males have a longer tale (it gets longer as they mature), and the vent is closer to the tip of the tail, and is shaped like a slit. Both males and females can have a little claw-like scale at the end of their tail.

Here is a page with pictures that is specific to RTs sexing: http://www.russiantortoise.net/male_female.htm

adamkenn said:
Cheers guys, after reading your posts I have come to the conclusion it's a male due the tail being off to one side and very slight concave plastron at the rear, if I can get a better picture of the tail I will post this in due course.

Thank you
 

Yvonne G

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Most baby tortoises look female until they get a little older. Yours is looking female right now, but its still a pretty young tortoise.
 
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