HI, I have 2 baby sulcatas that are each about 7 months old. I know how to sex them from what ive read, but what age do they have to be?
What age can you sex a tortoise? and how?
- Thread starter Totally_Tortoise
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Hi
It takes about 3-5 years to sex torts .
It takes about 3-5 years to sex torts .
Well, with tortoises, size DOES matter! It seems size is a bigger factor in reaching sexual maturity than age is. For me, in raising sulcatas, I find you will often find that males will show they are males as early as their second year. The will "flash" - extending their penis while in a bath or sometimes just because they can and want to! So then you KNOW you have a male. The secondary characteristics you say you are familiar with already - flared and thickening anal scutes, extending gular, concave plastron - normally start showing around 14". If they are slow growiing, that is where age also comes into play and you could see these characteristics start in a 5-6 yr old that is only 12". I have been surprised many times how one that looks very female will suddenly change at 15" even and turn out to be male. So for me I use a 16", and 16 lb rule. If they reach that size and still look female, I am confident they are female.
Thanks! I don't want to name them until I know their genders.
And if no one has mentioned it yet, they should be housed separately. They don't do well in pairs.
That's a long time to go without naming them! You could pick genderless names. A few people on the forum have tortoises with the wrong gender-specific name. I used to have a male rabbit named Pansy.
give it a name, you can always change it or add a new one and make a long fancy with the old name as a new last name, do their anal scutes look the same or different, just a tiny curve would indicate a difference in gender, post some pics side by side
Theres the pics, their cloacas are dirty I bathe them 2 to 3 times a week is that a problem?
Just read that there booties gotta be cleaned, so i'm gonna do that.
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