Trouble with determining tortoise sex

[ARiyan]

Hello everyone

My name is Ari and I am long time follower of the forum. I have 2 female Russians who lived happily together and were inseparable. I recently bought what I though was a third Russian female tortoise, however, as soon as I put the new tortoise with the other 2 it started smelling the bottom of the 2 other tortoises and attempted to mount them as they started running away that made me wonder if this tortoise is truly female, I have looked at pictures online and cant quite tell if this tortoise is male or female.

I would like to have all my tortoises in one enclosure but had to separate the new one as soon as this happened. Can someone help in finding out if this is male or female?

Thanks!
Ari

 

[dannylozano10]

Looks male to me

 

[Lyn W]

Sounds like male behaviour but depends on age
It may be too early to tell but this from Grandpa Turtle may help

 

[surfergirl]

looks to be a male to me

 

[Lyn W]

Also depending on the age of your females watch out for bullying from one which may have become dominant - not always outright aggression - could be just following the other around, looks, trying to push one off a good spot (often mistaken for snuggling which torts don't do). It can go unnoticed by us but causes stress to the poor tort on the receiving end.

 

[dmmj]

those tails are definitely big butt I don't know. How big is it? the best way to tell with Russians is to look at the vent on the tail. If its a slit its a male if its a star or astric looking then its female. female can be just as aggressive as males depending on their attitude and size of enclosure. and then snuggling together is not companionship it's threatening.

 

[Lyn W]

This may help explain why people are warned about keeping pairs of torts.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...together-a-lesson-learned-the-hard-way.94114/

 

[ARiyan]

those tails are definitely big butt I don't know. How big is it? the best way to tell with Russians is to look at the vent on the tail. If its a slit its a male if its a star or astric looking then its female. female can be just as aggressive as males depending on their attitude and size of enclosure. and then snuggling together is not companionship it's threatening.

thanks for all the responses guys! the tortoise is 6 inches so definitely an adult :/ ah seems like the person who sold it to me as female was not being honest

 

[Yvonne G]

thanks for all the responses guys! the tortoise is 6 inches so definitely an adult :/ ah seems like the person who sold it to me as female was not being honest

Not necessarily. Maybe they really didn't know...after all, you didn't.