Sexing Redfoots Hummm? experts and everyone

[N2TORTS]

So to strike up *friendly* debate and maybe some help to new RF owners. Not All guide lines you read on the net or “join the club” ideals are exactly correct when sexing Rf‘s. Here is an example of a *Proven Breeder* FEMALE Cherry around 11“ . Most guidelines will inform a person to think females will not exhibit the rear lobe of the plastron displaying a much wider and flatter anal notch. It’s quite obvious the short fat tail on this specimen, but the notch is very wide, and hardly any curvature like most females have.( Generally Males will have a very thick end somewhat calloused looking , while females usually thin. One can view this best when holding tortoise eye level and viewing rear to front) Also look at her plastron ….it is *concaved* just like you would see in males. So with that in mind , dig deep for info, ask the people who own and have seen 100’s of these wonderful creatures . Remember there are always exceptions to the so called “ rules and guide lines ”.

****Now Hopefully some other RF experts will chime in , in your opinion what would you consider this young Cherry @ 6.5" SCL to be …male or female?

Thanks for your opinion .......


JD~

 

[jareeed2]

Interesting stuff... Nice cherry head!! She breeding?

 

[bigred]

I would love to give my opinion but I think you probably know alot more than I do

 

[cdmay]

Good points. All of my larger and older female cherry heads have concave plastrons that would suggest a male. A couple of them also have pretty long tails that many would claim belong to males.
Usually (but not always) though females have the rounded anal notch as N2TORTS said. But then sometimes you see females like that first one of his with the flattened out anal scutes.
It seems to me that in most cases mature female cherry heads will have an enormous anal opening (again, see that first female) that males almost never have. Something else too, the smaller the female cherry head is at maturity, the larger the anal opening. I've seen some older females that were only 8 or 9 inches long but could still pass an egg the size of a billiard ball!
Oh, that smaller animal in the bottom photos looks like a female.

 

[N2TORTS]

Good points. All of my larger and older female cherry heads have concave plastrons that would suggest a male. A couple of them also have pretty long tails that many would claim belong to males.
Usually (but not always) though females have the rounded anal notch as N2TORTS said. But then sometimes you see females like that first one of his with the flattened out anal scutes.
It seems to me that in most cases mature female cherry heads will have an enormous anal opening (again, see that first female) that males almost never have. Something else too, the smaller the female cherry head is at maturity, the larger the anal opening. I've seen some older females that were only 8 or 9 inches long but could still pass an egg the size of a billiard ball!
Oh, that smaller animal in the bottom photos looks like a female.

Allrighty Mr. CD ...I was hoping you were going to add to the post!
I was in a debate with another keeper about the sex of the little one. He insisted it was a male because of the wide anal scutes , but I assured him not all males have that indication. The larger female in the first pics has produced 23 eggs in the last 2 years , so once again another misbelief, I have read .... that females who do show these characteristics ( wide scutes) are usually bad breeders or dont lay eggs at all. Anyhow thanks for the input and I hope this has helped other folks .
Here is a big Cherry Male .. Wide Gap and Huge Tail ....

Now always a curve ball! .... two females with different shape anal scutes

Thanks again CD for the input, nice to have some rational backing !
JD~

 

[Madkins007]

There is also a good paper to consider discussing masculine characteristics in female 'cherry-heads' by Guix. Tricky lil' torts!

 

[Yvonne G]

Another thing to go by is the anal/femoral scute seam. At the edge, the seam is straight for males and slightly indented for females.

 

[dmmj]

RF sexing has always eluded me ( not to weird of a phrase right?) I go with theory of until I get flashed or see eggs, then I can't tell 100 percent, my current RF is included in that theory.

 

[dmarcus]

I am so done trying to guess the sex of any tortoise that's not a sulcata. There are just so many factors you have to take into account plus the fact that females can and do have male characteristics. Makes it all so confusing..