We thought he was a male?

[PrayPeaceGod]

Hi all!

It's been a while since I posted on here, but honestly that's a good thing because I usually turn here only when I am in dire need of help. My Russian tortoise, Stephano, has been doing super well and is loving life. We actually took him to the vet this afternoon for a yearly checkup and potential beak filing/nail clipping, but the doctor said he seemed perfectly happy. The only issue we had was at the very end of the session, when our doctor said he was questioning whether or not our tortoise was actually a male. I've had this tortoise for 6 years now and have been calling him "my handsome boy" all this time! It was shocking to think I could've been mistaken all along hahaha

But either way, my mom and I are now looking more into how to determine the sex of the tortoise, and we're both split in opinions. That's why I'm turning to you trusty folks to see if you can help out! I'm attaching pictures of my tort and can provide any information necessary!

Thank you so much, and thanks for always being a great help

 

[Yvonne G]

That just goes to show you that your vet isn't very familiar with this species of tortoise. That looks like a male tail to me. The vet was probably going by the fact that your tortoise has a flat (rather than concave) plastron. But little do they know that the male Russian tortoise doesn't have a concave plastron. It's flat. Females have tiny, stubby tails.

 

[wellington]

Yvonne almost said word for word what I was going to say. You have to take what most reptiles vet say with a grain of salt. They know very little about tortoises.