AllExperts > Turtles 
Search      
Turtles
Volunteer
Answers to thousands of questions
 Home · More Turtles Questions · Answer Library  · Encyclopedia ·
More Turtles Answers
Question Library

Ask a question about Turtles
Volunteer
Experts of the Month
Expert Login

Awards

About Us
Tell friends
Link to Us
Disclaimer

 
 
 
 
About Mark Adkins
Expertise

PLEASE- No water or box turtle questions. If you have a question about Red-ear Sliders, Painted Turtles, or other turtles, please try a different expert or http://www.turtleforum.com. It is free and very good.

My specialty is tortoises, especially Red-foot Tortoises. I will gladly try to help with any tortoise-related question I can. I will also help with general questions about things like behavior of wild turtles, etc.

I am not a vet or a breeder, herpetologist, etc. I'm just a guy who studies tortoises. I reserve the right to send you to a website if they have a better answer than I can offer rather than doing long cut-and-pastes, etc. I also will not second guess a vet or recommend home surgery or self-prescribing prescription meds.



 
   

You are here:  Experts > Animals/Pets > Exotic Pets > Turtles > Sex of a turtle

Turtles - Sex of a turtle


Expert: Mark Adkins - 2/11/2007

Question
How do you tell the sex of a turtle

Answer
Depends on the kind of turtle. Some basic rules are:

1. You can't tell most turtles until they are a couple years old.

2. Most males have in-curved bellies, females have flat or out-curved bellies.

3. Most males have longer, thinner tails with the vent near the middle. Females have short wide tails with the vent near the base of the tail.

In some species you can tell by other ways:
- In most turtles, the male is smaller and more colorful than the female, unless the males fight for females.
- In most slider and other pond turtles, the males have long front claws.
- In some box turtles, the males have bright colored eyes, usually red or orange.

Ask a Question


 
User Agreement | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy | Help
Copyright  © 2008 About, Inc. AllExperts, AllExperts.com, and About.com are registered trademarks of About, Inc. All rights reserved.