# help sexing tortoise



## felixr (Jan 3, 2012)

hey everyone,

am a new tortoise owner. was wandering if anyone could help me sexing this little guy-i think he's male but not really sure.

cheers

felix


----------



## GBtortoises (Jan 3, 2012)

Still a bit too small (and young) to tell for certain.


----------



## dmarcus (Jan 3, 2012)

Hello Felix and welcome to the forum... I agree that your tortoise is still to small to say 100% either way..


----------



## Yvonne G (Jan 3, 2012)

Hi felix:


*Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!*


----------



## Baoh (Jan 3, 2012)

At this early point in development, it might be irresponsible (and a disservice to both you and the animal, potentially) for someone to make a declaration as to its sex. You should be able to get a better idea in another year or two.


----------



## pdrobber (Jan 3, 2012)

welcome


----------



## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 3, 2012)

Pretty young, so it's only a guess at this point in time, but right now it looks female...but, as others have already said, it'll be a year or two before positive ID is possible.







Note how, in these adult tortoises, the male's tail (on the right of this pic) is longer/more massive.

Good looking little thing, though...nice, smooth shell.


----------



## felixr (Jan 4, 2012)

ah cool cheers everyone


----------



## felixr (Jan 5, 2012)

ah fair enough. Might get him a friend in the mean time-do tortoises need socialising? Also how big is he going to get-i've heard/read everything from 5 inches to 15!


----------



## GBtortoises (Jan 5, 2012)

I wouldn't paint the room in blue just yet. Baby Greek subspecies all have relatively fat, flat tails when young. Some are even difficult to determine the gender of as sub adults.
Some tortoise species are more social than others. Generally speaking, Greek tortoises are primarily solitary animals and don't have "need" for companionship with other tortoises. 
Based on the photos your's appears to be a Middle Eastern subspecies, possibly a hybrid. Almost all Middle Eastern species range in size from about 6-8" as adults. There are always exceptions and some subspecies and individuals do get larger but not usually much larger. I've never seen or know of any Greek subspecies that reach 15". Even large examples of Northern Mediterranean Ibera don't come close to that size.


----------



## LParkey (Jan 7, 2012)

I've already been told that my poor tort, Sunshine, is abnormally small  and am waiting on shipment from the feed store for her Mazuri. I was just curious, since she is 22 months, if anyone could tell me her sex yet? To me "she" is looking more and more like a "he" lol


----------

