But I have heard females will mount too. I don't know if they make the noise though. You can't see any boy parts in he pics, but I'm going to safely assume she was indeed a he
Tortoise Sex changing after two?
- Thread starter wellington
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You know what wellington. I surely hope that will be my case.
I have 1.2 Hermanni. The male's tail are very thick and long, this one, who we thought were she and still hope is a SHE, have a short tail, like my other known "female's".
It's her action that day, throw me off. I truly, truly hope she still a she. I may take some photo tomorrow.
I hope so too for ya. Now we need to know from the people that breed a lot, does the females, when they have mounted other torts, do they do the open mouth noise thing too?
Yes they do.
Yep sure do. In many species as well this can be common. Mostly it's establishing territory dominance.
Thanks. Love this forum and the people that will help to teach others that don't know. Other forums just make fun and offer nothing to help anyone. Those forums should get off their high horse and actually be of some use, then just taking up space. So glad most everyone here are willing to participate and educate, except for a few old (not in age) members that were useless anyway. Thanks TFO
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From my experience, marginateds are almost impossible to tell until five to seven years, and even then, I remain skeptical until he, as Yvonne puts it, flashes me. Even with Lady Gino, who I now know is a lady given the she lays eggs, I was always skeptical, given that her two brothers were both flashing at age six, and they had very similar characteristics. She even has a slightly concave plastron, and her tail is not that short. I mean, it is short compared to Gino, an unrelated male and my first marginated, but given that she's the only female marginated I raised to maturity and didn't obtain as an adult or juvenile, I suppose I never really had anything to which to compare her. Then this was complicated by the fact that Lady Gino is a mean spirited beast who would hump her brothers. I was confused by this for the longest time, and my confusion started with my painted turtles, who would also engage in this ritual regardless of the gender of the chelonian getting mounted. But yeah, marginateds are tough, not that there is a species of tortoise that is easy. I couldn't tell male from female in my uncle's redfoot colony until they were all over ten inches. At that point, I was fairly certain, but even then I had my doubts, given that you look at an animal so long, you become oblivious to the gradual changes. You find yourself second guessing everything, especially if you're the sort of person who overthinks a particular problem without the cognizance to occasionally step back and, I don't know, look at an old picture. Someone needs to invent an app for this purpose. Scan your tortoise with your phone, gives you the gender and it's relation to other tortoises you've scanned.
T.G.
T.G.
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talk to me baby ……
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Hahahaha, good one.
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I was surprised yesterday by this issue. I've gone from two male stars and three female stars to the opposite. My two youngest I obtained as "appear to be male and female." And it sure did seem that way.
They're both about 2 years old at the moment and the smaller of the two has been flashing all along. The larger of the two was growing quickly, never flashed and had a much smaller tail than the littler male. Seemed straight forward. I did notice recently, however, that the "female" didn't seem to be growing so fast, the caudal scute appeared to be cupping inward slightly and its smaller tail, while still small, might have been growing.
Well I gave them their weekly soak yesterday and lo and behold the "female" made it clear that it's a male. Although it is a larger tort than the other male, it's not as well endowed, at least yet. So maybe it's just been shy in the showers/soaks. ;-).
Well, I am disappointed about the changed sex ratio of my stars, but I will figure out how to deal, either expand the herd or lose a male or two. Right now I'm busy developing a larger home for them all as torts do clearly need roaming space and my torts have had the minimum for their size and expansion of the herd will take a back seat to that.
They're both about 2 years old at the moment and the smaller of the two has been flashing all along. The larger of the two was growing quickly, never flashed and had a much smaller tail than the littler male. Seemed straight forward. I did notice recently, however, that the "female" didn't seem to be growing so fast, the caudal scute appeared to be cupping inward slightly and its smaller tail, while still small, might have been growing.
Well I gave them their weekly soak yesterday and lo and behold the "female" made it clear that it's a male. Although it is a larger tort than the other male, it's not as well endowed, at least yet. So maybe it's just been shy in the showers/soaks. ;-).
Well, I am disappointed about the changed sex ratio of my stars, but I will figure out how to deal, either expand the herd or lose a male or two. Right now I'm busy developing a larger home for them all as torts do clearly need roaming space and my torts have had the minimum for their size and expansion of the herd will take a back seat to that.
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