Is this a female?

[hacker79]

I know this is probably posted all the time, but I just have a really hard time figuring it out. I picked this tortoise up as a female, but my male really seems to be aggressive towards her. I will have to measure her shell but I believe she is about 14"-16".

 

[Yvonne G]

This is one of those in between cases. The anal scutes say female, however the tail is pretty big for a female.

One thing to consider is that males can be pretty brutal towards the female when he wants to subdue her.

 

[hacker79]

thanks for the reply Yvonne. I'm very unsure myself. The person I got her from seemed pretty sure it's a female. I've had to separate them as my male will charge her and roll her over and push her up against the fence.

 

[mainey34]

I agree...how old is this sulcata. It is too hard to tell. I would like to see the tail extended to give an answer.

 

[yagyujubei]

The toenails on the back feet are very short.

 

[Neal]

I'm going with male. The tail tells the tale.

 

[Jacqui]

The tail tells the tale.

Been waiting long to use that one?

 

[hacker79]

Okay, I took some new pics of what I hope is really a girl. BTW, she is only 12"-13" in size. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I hope these pics help one way or the other.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[yagyujubei]

Man, another tough one. I think that this one is still too small to tell. I'm leaning towards female on this one.

 

[Tom]

In the initial pics, I thought male since that tail looks huge. In that last pic where you are holding the tail it doesn't look as big. Can you get a pic of the tail just sitting normally?

Males have big tails that they lay along the backs of their thighs, like in the first pics. Females have little short tails that look like little nubs. Female tails aren't long enough to lay along the thigh. The tail on oyur doesn't look large or small. It looks medium. A medium tail is not going to shrink as the tortoise nears maturity. The only thing a medium tail will do is grow and become a large tail as your male nears maturity. That is... if your other male doesn't kill him first.

Female:

See how the tail is the tiniest of nubs once it passes the cloacal opening. The tail on yours already looks bigger than the tail on this 40 pound adult female.

 

[hacker79]

Thanks again for the replies. The reason I'm holding the tail out is she/he does keep it tucked towards the side. She never just has it sticking out herself.

You can see in the pic where I'm holding the tail he/she is trying to pull it back to the side.

If any other pics would help let me know. I can try to get a better shot of how her tail normally sits, but I think the first pics show it pretty well. Just let me know though. Thanks again!

 

[Katherine]

A boy. I would be shocked to learn otherwise; looks very male to me.

 

[Tom]

If any other pics would help let me know. I can try to get a better shot of how her tail normally sits, but I think the first pics show it pretty well. Just let me know though. Thanks again!

A pic showing the tail, like the one I posted, would get your question answered with certainty. You cannot see the tail in your first pics and its too hard to judge in the pic where you are pulling on it. We need to see how long the actual tail is after the cloaca. I can't see the tail or the cloaca in your first pics, and its all stretched out in the second round. Its not an easy shot to get. I've had the best luck by having someone hold the tortoise against their body with the head pointing up at the sky.

The gulars are looking pretty big for such a young tortoise too. A sign of a male, but not enough to be conclusive. Could just be a young female with unusually large gulars.

 

[Baoh]

You have a male that is a bit of a late bloomer.