Sexing Sullies

[Tropical Torts]

I have a 2-3 month old sulcata and I was wondering how old they have to be in order to determine the sex. Any replies would be appreciated! Thanks, John

 

[Annieski]

From what I understand,from reading and this forum, the age of the tort is around four to five years, to be really sure. There are changes that occur to the plastron[ flat for females-- concave{indent} for males]--tail length [longer for males---shorter for females]---the anal shutes[sharper,v-like for males---wider,u-like for females]---and the gular shutes[in the front where the neck is appear longer in the males. My Mortimer at 2.5 years was thought to be female[even by the vet] and within a few more months, started to "look" more and more like a male[so I'm keeping his name, but it's hard to say "he".

 

[Tom]

You can't be 100% sure until you see an erection or egg laying. Usually you can tell by 4-5 years, but not always. My Bert was called Bertha up until 8 or 9 years old. Give us pics of the plastron head/face and anal scutes and we can all have fun guessing!

 

[TortieLuver]

I have heard that it's not so much the years, but growth of the tortoise and generally to really get a pretty good answer, about 12 inches in length. This however, seems to be a big debate on the forum website. Right now, they are much too small, but perhaps you bought them temp sexed as females???