I can be taught and I pay attention.
I was at a customer's house doing an inspection and I saw they had a 4" DT in an enclosure next to the garage and several man made rock burrows and tort dug burrows in the rest of the backyard. Which appeared to have been tort escape proofed. I said hello to the DT, looked in the burrows and nosed around to see if there were any others but didn't see anyone. I moved on with my work. I turned back around towards the backyard a few minutes later and there was a 10-12" DT in the middle of the yard. I walked over to say hello and there suddenly was another large DT appearing out of no where. The house owner came out and told me they belonged to her son and she had no idea what sex they were except the 2 larger ones were the smaller ones parents. Turns out there were 4 small DT 3-5" (in too small a space for 4). Sexing them was actually easy. I showed the lady of the house the shape of underside shell near the tail on the adults compared to the kids and she hada total of 3 males and 3 females. It was kinda cool. She was very receptive to suggestions on better care - calcium and food and stuff and how she should give them more space. She said she wanted to move them but her son is afraid of birds and the bigger tort is bullying them. I hope it happens. If I get work there I will get to see them again.
I was excited I could sex them with my limited knowledge and actually was surprised at how easy it was.
Dawna
I was at a customer's house doing an inspection and I saw they had a 4" DT in an enclosure next to the garage and several man made rock burrows and tort dug burrows in the rest of the backyard. Which appeared to have been tort escape proofed. I said hello to the DT, looked in the burrows and nosed around to see if there were any others but didn't see anyone. I moved on with my work. I turned back around towards the backyard a few minutes later and there was a 10-12" DT in the middle of the yard. I walked over to say hello and there suddenly was another large DT appearing out of no where. The house owner came out and told me they belonged to her son and she had no idea what sex they were except the 2 larger ones were the smaller ones parents. Turns out there were 4 small DT 3-5" (in too small a space for 4). Sexing them was actually easy. I showed the lady of the house the shape of underside shell near the tail on the adults compared to the kids and she hada total of 3 males and 3 females. It was kinda cool. She was very receptive to suggestions on better care - calcium and food and stuff and how she should give them more space. She said she wanted to move them but her son is afraid of birds and the bigger tort is bullying them. I hope it happens. If I get work there I will get to see them again.
I was excited I could sex them with my limited knowledge and actually was surprised at how easy it was.
Dawna