AboutYexalen Expertise I am experienced with the care, lighting, heating, breeding, sexing, species identification, and general keeping of mostly aquatic turtles. I also have experience with tortoises and land turtles and can certainly research any question that I do not know the answer. I can not answer medical related questions as I am not veterinarian certified. I prefer not to answer questions on animals that you or somebody else has taken out of their natural environment unless the animal was in danger, ill, or injured.
Experience I have owned six aquatic turtles and have been researching turtles for several years. I have been on several question and answer sites under this category. I also have started up a web site focused on reptile care with a portion of it for turtles.
Education/Credentials I have been around turtles sense a very young age and always found them fascinating and because of that it has lead me to researching day after day, reading book after book, and finding endless amounts of web sites with information.
Question my turtles have been acting funny lately one is about 3 months old and about 4 inches long and the other is 2 months old and the size of a half dolar they are very sweet to each other the even sleep on top of one another i dont know what sex they are but they've been putting their front legs in front of their heads in claping them at each other while head to head i did not know if i should be alarmed if they are going to hurt one another and why they are doing this. Should i be alarmed?
Answer Hello Samantha,
Is this behavior seem like they are vibrating their nails in each others faces?
This can be dominant or territorial behavior and is more commonly mating behavior. Males do this to attract a mate.
However because the second turtle is so young I don't see this happening.
It can very well be territorial or dominant behavior. They may both be male and not get along.
To be sure you need to determine the gender. The smaller of the two is too young to be sure but you should be able to tell the gender of the larger one.
Does he/she have long front claws compared to the back claws? Is his/her cloaca (vent or anal opening) located on the tail close to the shell or is it on the tail located more towards the tip of the tial rather then near the shell?
