New female!!

[Meg90]

Ahh! See--told you I'd been wrong before! Glad its a girl!

 

[ehopkins12]

I had you guys determine the sex of my other on and you guys said it was male. It does seem male but one thing was throwing me off...I read on russiantortoise.org that females have a cloaca that resembles an asterisk *. This female certainly has that, and a short tail, so i think this is for sure a female...but my other one I originally thought was a male, has a longer hook shaped tail, but has the asterisk shaped cloaca. Does this mean he's just not mature. or is it a female with a long tail? I'll go ahead and repost pictures, so we can be sure I don't have 2 females.

 

[GBtortoises]

Overall tail length is not always an accurate indicator when determining the gender of a Russian or most Northern Mediterranean or Middle Eastern tortoises. It's not unusual for some males to have tails that are shorter than normal or females to have tails a bit longer than typical. Cloacal shape and placement along with, in most cases, length and thickness of tail all need to be considered together. Mature male Russians in particular will usually have a very evident slit for a cloacal opening. Most also have a very obviously thick tail base that tapers uniformly to a point with a hard tip at the end. Mature females have a "puckered" looking cloacal opening that is closer to it's body than a male's opening. The tail is often very thick at the base too but very quickly tapers to very small point at the end. When view from the back it usually looks like a very symetrical triangle. But there are exceptions to these common features based on individual animals too.

Looking at your photos I think it's a female too.

 

[ehopkins12]

ok here's some pictures of my male. Not sure if you guys remember him. A few weeks ago I thought he was a female based on what petsmart told me and you guys determined he was male after i posted pictures.

long tail put to the side

This is what through me off though...

He seems to have an * or "puckered" cloacal. which is a female characteristic right? But anyway my question is are you sure this isn't a female with a long tail? or maybe an immature male? I'm sorry if i'm being annoying! I am just new to all this and am really just wanting to be able to sex them myself in the future. Thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not sure, but I THINK the straight line cloaca male thing is referring more to other mediterraneans like Greeks and Hermanns.

In the Russian its the big-fat-tail=male thing.

 

[chadk]

Def male and if you compare the holes, they are different. The female's is definately more rounded and * (astrix) shaped. The males is similar, but kinda stretched - not a perfect little *. Of course the long tail with 'hook' is a dead giveaway...

 

[GBtortoises]

Mature male Russian tortoises do also have a long narrow cloacal opening the same as mature Hermann's do. They also usually have a very fat tail the same as male Hermann's do.

I'm not sure, but I THINK the straight line cloaca male thing is referring more to other mediterraneans like Greeks and Hermanns.

In the Russian its the big-fat-tail=male thing.

 

[-ryan-]

I agree with most here, you almost certainly have a male and female pair.

---

The majority of the wild caught Russian tortoises imported have been males, but there seems to be a fair amount of females that come in with them at certain times. Larger females are held back.

Another thing to consider is the 4" law. The torts need to be at least 4" to be imported, but there is more money in higher quantities, so importers tend to stick to animals in the 4-5" range because they can pack more of them in a crate than 6" tortoises. Since 4-5" is basically just a stage in a female russian tortoise's life (because most mature female russians end up in the 6-8" range or larger), there are less of them naturally available than 4-5" males (since 4-5" is a pretty standard size for a mature male, with animals over 6" the exception rather than the rule). So I basically think it's a matter of economics and availability.