Underage sex?

[kingskettle]

My two 6 year olds were observed seemingly having some sort of sexual encounter today. Is this possible??? Were they just joshing?? Was it a try out??[/b]

 

[dmmj]

It could be a dominance factor, also sexual maturity results from size not age.

 

[kingskettle]

OK. Thanks for your reply. The ''dominant'' one was doing a lot of mouth opening-----is that also a dominance thing?

 

[Katherine]

How big are they? Before mine reached reproductive size, my male would occasionally mount the girls... Backwards, sideways, however he happened to jump up there. I do believe he was just confused and beginning to get hormonal. Tortoises will absolutely mount each other to display dominance, I have seen that many times but never witnessed it first hand with leopards. All the leopard tortoises I have had the pleasure of sharing my weeds with have been very passive and never fought or felt the need display dominance. May just have been good luck that mine were mellow but based on my experience I am skeptical that your Leo's are doing this out of aggression. At 6 years of age I am tempted to think that they may be just be experimenting and trying to figure themselves out. I had one female lay her first fertile clutch at 7, so depending on their size this could quickly go from 'practice' to successful copulation.

 

[Jacob]

It can be a dominance factor, or maybe getting it on.
Have you had your torts sexed? You can post pictures of their bottom so we can identify?

 

[kingskettle]

OK. Here are the relative parts for identification!!

 

[yagyujubei]

They're too small too be breeding. They might be younger than you think. Looks like one of each though.

 

[Tortoise Hub]

How big are they?

 

[kingskettle]

The bigger one weighs 1365gms and measures 7 and a half inches and the smaller one is 792gms and 6 and a quarter inches.

 

[Tortoise Hub]

Right now I say females but that could change since they arent fully mature yet. Is either of their plastrons (bottom of shell) concaved at all?

 

[Neal]

It could have been a dominance thing.

It looks like they are both females. If you can get a shot of the tail extended of the one on the left, that would help, but otherwise it looks to be female.

 

[Hallbomber]

The one on left looks male to me.

 

[kingskettle]

I always figured the male was the one on the left then when they went to see a specialist vet, he said the smaller one was the male and the larger was the female. Who knows?????????

 

[Neal]

Leopards are very tricky, even when full grown. The one on the right looks female without question, the one on the left could go either way, but if it were a male, I would expect the tail to be touching the heels of its feet.

 

[dav3]

one on left = male
one on right = female

 

[kingskettle]

OK I won't change their names then! Thanks everyone.