Gender guestimate please

[Anastasia]

4" in Hermann's, does it look like he could end up male? I have him with another one who's tail has sprouted VERY quickly into a definite male. That one has been tormenting this one so I've separated them. Might not keep both if they're both male.

 

[Laurie]

I'm going to say female

 

[BowandWalter]

I'd second female.

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

Same here, I say female

 

[mctlong]

There's still a chance he could male...

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

There's still a chance he could male...

You just had to be that one person, didn't you?

 

[Anastasia]

That's good to know! Thanks! At what size do females typical become sexually mature? At what rate does the "average" female grow?

Also can an Eastern male be full grown at just a smidge over 4"? Will he still grow even though he's definitely "mature" now? (That's just out of curiosity! LOL!) I guess I'll plan to keep them both but keep them in separate cages until maybe one day I can consider seeing if they'll breed.

 

[Eweezyfosheezy]

Thats a female, females dont start to become mature until 6" or so. The rate at which females grow is entirely different for each owner because each owner has their own way of raising their tortoises, so theres a lot of factors in play. An Eastern Male doesnt max at around 4", he will easily get 2-3" bigger than that so theres plenty more growing for him too. Thats a good idea about separating him, males can pester females until they just end up dying because of all the stress. Look into getting a couple more females down the road for when you do decide to introduce the male to your female so she can relax while he's going after the other girls and vice versa.

 

[CactusVinnie]

Yeah... don't tell me the tale about tails ... they suddenly get longer and destroy your breeding dreams- it's about Horsfields in my case.
More likely female...

 

[Anastasia]

That is kinda what happened with my other one, although I hadn't been dreaming of breeding, I had been dreaming of having two females that actually co-existed somewhat peacefully together. Then it seemed like overnight that Howard suddenly sprouted a gigantic tail, and now he's nothing but trouble! He not only mounts anything and everything, he bites and rams into anything that moves. He needs a sign taped to his back, "Doesn't play well with others". Once when I had them outside this summer, I momentarily set him down in the pen that my 9" Sulcata was in, and in the 1 minute that he was in there, he managed to find her and bite her several times (no damage of course)! I just grabbed him out right as she was thinking about retaliating! He's 4" and he thinks he can take on a 9" beast! Talk about ego!

I hadn't really wanted to have two separate enclosures so was thinking if they both ended up male, I'd rehome one right now. But if Dave is a girl, I'll give it some more time, and toss around the breeding idea (as well as the thought of having two separate cages permanently) some more.