Sexing a turtle shell

Looking at a red-eared sliders tail is another way to determine its gender. In some species like the Saw-shelled turtle Wollumbinia latisternum Steindachners turtle Chelodina steindachneri and Snapping turtles Elseya sp they are sexually dimorphic with males being significantly smaller than females.

A male box turtle has a much brighter colored shell than a female.

Sexing a turtle shell. Look at your turtles shell. The turtles shell or carapace differs slightly between male and female. An adult female turtle has a slightly longer shell than an adult male has.

As a means of sexing the turtle this method is limited because you. A tortoise shell is in two parts a top and a bottom. To sex a tortoise or a turtle you have to look at the plastron.

Thats the bottom shell. A male tortoise plastron is concave. I always remember the word cave inside of con cave.

That means it has a hollow–cave–part made to fit the top shell of the female tortoise when the two mate. This means that a turtle should have at least 3 of the following 7 key characteristics before any sex determination is made. Coloring on the face and forelegs eye color hind claws general shape of the carapace depression or lack thereof on the plastron tail length and placement of the.

To reliably use shell size as a factor in determining the gender of a turtle the turtle must have reached its adult size. The bottom of a turtles shell called the plastron is also used as an indicator for determining gender in turtles. The interesting thing about turtles sexing and breeding is the fact that the future sex of water turtles is influenced by the temperature used to incubate the eggs.

For instance it is known that the eggs of a certain species of water turtles the Red-Eared Slider when incubated at 85 F will yield mostly female baby turtles. To sex tortoises pick up the tortoise and examine its lower shell. If the lower shell is indented or concave it is most likely male.

If the lower shell is flat or convex it is most likely female. You can feel the lower shell with your fingers if you need to confirm its shape. The turtles shell or carapace differs slightly between male and female.

An adult female turtle has a slightly longer shell than an adult male has. As a means of sexing the turtle this method is limited because you need to make sure that the turtle is fully grown. You may assume that a turtle is male due to a smaller size when it actually has more growing to do.

Males stay smaller my largest is around 8in and they keep a cleaner pattern of spots and some develop a rougher texter presumably because males spend more time in sand in shallow water than females who are often in deeper more open water. Yours are still too smallyoung for any definitive sexing. One way to sex a tortoise is to check if the plastron is concave or flat.

Females will have a flat plastron since they need more space to lay their eggs inside their shells. The males plastron is concave to prevent him from slipping when hes on top of the female during mating. This monster was going to make measuring weighing and sexing the tiny musk turtles look like childs play.

Contrary to popular belief snapping turtles should never be picked up by the tail alone. This can cause serious and often fatal damage to the animals spinal cord. The shell shape starts to develop in young turtles between 1 to 2 years old.

Hatchling turtles are too small to accurately sex this way but for slightly older species that measure four inches long shell shape can help you sex a juvenile. Looking at a red-eared sliders tail is another way to determine its gender. Shell Color and Size.

While their shells color shouldnt be the only indicator you base the sex on it can lead you in the correct direction for determining the gender. A male box turtle has a much brighter colored shell than a female. A female shell tends to.

The plastron can be used as a good pointer for understanding the gender of a turtle. This part of the turtles shell plastron will be very different in both male and female turtles. In the male turtle the plastron will take a concave or a curved in shape.

However on the female turtle the plastron will be flat. Examining the Turtles Shell. Look at your turtles shell.

The turtles shell or carapace differs slightly between male and female. An adult female turtle has a slightly longer shell than an adult male has. As a means of sexing the turtle this method is limited because you need to make sure that the turtle is fully grown.

The rear of the shell on males tends to curve inward under the tortoise where females generally end pointing straight down at the ground. —–Indian Star Tortoises —–Leopard Tortoises. Sexing leopard tortoises can be done in a few ways but females are generally quite a bit larger than males when full grown.

Share on FACEBOOK NOW. As the spurred tortoise grows it can be seen that the underside shell called the plastron is flat in the female but concave in the male. The anal scutes which are located on the plastron near the tail form a V shape but are flared in the male and narrower in the female.

Looking at the size and shape of the shell is another method that is limited mainly because you need to wait until your red-eared slider turtle reaches a certain maturity. This method is not applicable to baby red-eared sliders. In general male red-eared slider turtles reach sexual maturity at age between 2 to 5 years old.

Sexing a turtle really isnt all that hard once you know what features to look for. There are a number of simple checks you can perform to determine which gender your turtle belongs to. Look at your turtles plastron.

Of course you knew that your shelled friends plastron is its under shell didnt you. As a rule male turtles have a concave inward curving shell whilst female. A novel method for sexing turtles 119 ly and required stimulation to other parts of their body before they would relax and extend their tails.

Odoratus this generally involved mov- ing the vibrator in slow small circles on the abdominal. In some species like the Saw-shelled turtle Wollumbinia latisternum Steindachners turtle Chelodina steindachneri and Snapping turtles Elseya sp they are sexually dimorphic with males being significantly smaller than females. In most turtles the cloaca of the male is situated further away from the anal scute of the plastron than in females fig4.

Size of the Turtle. In most cases female yellow bellied sliders will get considerably bigger than males. On average a female will reach sizes between 12 and 14 inches 30 and 35 centimeters while males usually reach sizes between 8 to 10 inches 20 to 25 centimeters.

Photo by Maret Hosemann on Flickr. Location City andor State Florida. Lacking sex chromosomes male and female tortoises will be no different in terms of genome.

With TSD certain genes will activate and silence in response to condition. A blood test looking at DNA in order to determine sex is a waste of time.