question about a Sulcata

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mira_kaylee

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hey, i'm here with my friend who just joined (SulcataSarah) and she has a question but doesn't want to wait for the 5post waiting period. She wants to know how to tell if her Sulcata is male or female. She thinks that he is male but isn't sure and would like a more experienced opinion. What are the criteria for telling male and female in Sulcatas?
 

dmarcus

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How big is the sulcata? and there are several factors that come into play when trying to determine the sex. Pictures always help..
 

Laura

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she needs to post pictures of the tail area and underside. We can guess, but if its under 5 years its just a guess... and then some!
 

Jacob

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Its hard to tell when they are young, once they are around 5 years old or are bigger then we can give you a 100%
answer...
 

Yvonne G

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Well, the sooner she gets those 5 posts under her belt, the sooner she can ask her own questions! :p And, no, this one doesn't count!!!
 

mira_kaylee

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lol i know that this one didn't count for her, i'm sure that she's happy to know that though seeing as her Sulcata is perhaps 2 years old at most. She posted a picture on her introduction post of her tortoise which she temporarily named piggy. She thought that it was a boy but she started to doubt it when i commented that piggy had the same tail that a female russian tort would have lol :)
 

Arizona Sulcata

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At two years old there's no way you'd be able to tell. The easiest way to tell once they get older/bigger is the female will have a flat underside of the shell and the males will be concave. But for now too early.
 

SulcataSarah

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Hello, thanks for posting the question for me Mira.
Piggy started with a wide opening of the shells beneath the tail and a concaved underbelly when i got him. (he was almost a year at the time i think). but now piggy has flattened out his belly and his tail is near nonexistant, so tiny lol. and he's kind of rounded out on top more than he has in width =/
 

Jacqui

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SulcataSarah said:
Hello, thanks for posting the question for me Mira.

Congrats, now you have your five posts in and will not have to wait for a Mod to come along and approve them! :D
 

SulcataSarah

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Well Piggy does hate the color blue... but on the other hand he obsesses for the color white... =/
 

tortoiselady

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SulcataSarah said:
Well Piggy does hate the color blue... but on the other hand he obsesses for the color white... =/

Do you put out cuttle bone for him/here? Sometimes when they are looking for white they are looking for calcium and cuttle bone is my favorite way for my sulcatas to get it. They eat at it when they want and leave it alone the rest of the time. Just a thought.

Welcome!
 

SulcataSarah

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yup, he used to have two in there, but he dragged one into the water dish lol so now theres about half of a full one left in his pen.
 

SulcataSarah

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i noticed something this morning that seemed odd, piggys always been a bit of a scaredy cat but this morning when i went to feed him it was really bad. he'd move and his nails would make a sound on the rock, or hed move some of the substrate and hed just squeak and shrink right back into his shell so fast and hide there for a moment, or hed squeak and bolt off like something had tried to attack him or something. is it normal for them to have random moments of freaking out? after about twenty minutes he wasn't so bad.
 

tortoiselady

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You may have just caught him off guard. Sometimes I startle even a big one and they stay in for a few minutes - and they really have nothing to be afraid off.
 
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