How to determine the sex of a red-eared slider? How to determine the gender of an aquatic red-eared turtle How to distinguish the gender of a red-eared turtle.

To get cubs from your pet reptile, you need to know exactly what gender your pet is, and therefore you need to understand how to determine the sex of a turtle. However, due to the fact that individuals do not have pronounced sexual characteristics, it is quite difficult to distinguish a female from a male. Therefore, the owner of this exotic reptile will have to make some efforts and watch the pet. You should pay attention specifically to the habits of the turtle in the company of other individuals, and also study appearance domestic reptile.

General rules for distinguishing the sex of turtles

It is not possible to determine the sex of small turtles (up to one year old), so if at the time of purchase you want to understand whether this is a male or a female, you are unlikely to succeed right away, since this requires only an adult reptile. Most species of turtles can be distinguished closer to sexual maturity. In the event that you have one representative living at home, you will need to focus on general features floors But if you are the happy owner of several individuals, or you have the opportunity to borrow from friends their pet for comparison, then you can determine the sex of a pet turtle by making some observations of the behavior of individuals.

Differences between the sexes of turtles in appearance

To understand how to determine the sex of land turtles, you need to learn about the anatomy of individuals, in particular their features.

Plastron and turtle shell

If you compare the shell of both sexes of turtles, you will find that in females it is not as elongated as in males. Moreover, such a part of the body as the plastron (located on the abdominal side) has much more characteristic differences. If you turn your pet over, you can immediately see all its features. In females, the ventral part of the shell is flat, while in males it is slightly concave inward. Such comparisons of the sexes can only be made with mature individuals that have become capable of producing offspring and have grown to no less than 11 cm. You should also know that females are larger than males.

Claws, cloaca and tail of a turtle

The tail of a reptile can also help answer the question of how to determine the sex of a domestic turtle. In male representatives, the tail is longer and wider than in females, while its shape is also different. Males have a tail that is slightly lowered to the ground, while the tail of females is straight and short.

In female representatives of the turtle world, the anus has the shape of a star and is located closer to the end of the shell, while in males the cloaca looks like a straight line.

Claws is another one characteristic, with which you can determine the sex of the turtle. The front paws of males have claws that are significantly longer than the claws of females, with the exception of panther tortoises, in which this feature is reversed. Male box turtles have thick claws on the front limbs, but on the hind limbs they are curved down.

Reptile head

Caroline's eyes box turtle, in particular in the male, have a reddish shell. Here's a look like a female marsh turtle, have yellowish eyes, while "boys" have brown eyes.

Another characteristic feature for female turtles is the development of the jaw at a higher level than in males. Red-eared turtles, namely males, have a longer nose, but females do not have such a pronounced feature.

Determining the sex of a turtle by behavior

To determine the sex of your favorite pet turtle, you need to spend some time observing the pet’s behavior in the company of its own kind. Males are more active and can show aggression, especially during the mating season, but females are more likely to hide their heads in their shells.

During the mating season, males very actively court females and shake their heads in front of them in a peculiar way, but in relation to other males, they very often show aggression.

Read about and how to determine the age of a pet turtle in this article.

Did you like the article? Take it to your wall and support the project!

How to determine the sex of a turtle? A question that is asked not only by any novice breeder, but also by an ordinary person who wants to give suitable name to your new pet. Here we should immediately note the disappointing fact that at a very early age it is difficult to find out who is in front of you - a boy or a girl. And often it is impossible and useless.

Although the sex of the turtle is formed in the egg, external differences between them become noticeable only during puberty. And females often imitate in childhood mating behavior their potential partners, nullifying all observations.

But this does not mean at all that for an unambiguous “diagnosis” it is necessary to wait until the turtle reaches the age of sexual maturity. Five to eight years is too long. It is possible to determine whether an amphibian belongs to one sex or another already in the first year of life. Or even a little earlier: the differences between females and males become noticeable when the length of their shell reaches 8-11 centimeters. In this case, you should pay attention to:

shell;
paws;
tail.

The main differences are described below.

How to determine the sex of a red-eared slider?

Length and appearance of claws, shell

The most obvious thing that will almost immediately catch your eye if there are several red-eared turtles in the aquarium is their claws. The claws of females are rather short and blunt. Whereas in males, unlike them, they are long. This feature has two practical applications. Firstly, such claws make it much easier to cling and hold on to the female’s shell during mating. And secondly, red-eared turtles use them to flirt with their significant other, performing peculiar dances and attracting attention to themselves. But there is one caveat: in captivity, turtle claws can wear down o the rough material of the island of land in the aquarium.

The size and shape of the red-eared slider's shell also matters. First of all, this is its lower half - in males the plastron is concave inwards. And in general, their shell is somewhat different from those that the girls “wear.” He smaller, more elongated and oval in shape. As with claws, these features make it easier for turtles to fertilize.

Females, in turn, are somewhat larger and much more rounded in shape., since they need to bear and lay eggs. What is the connection with the other, less obvious distinguishing feature plastron: in males in the area of the tail it forms a V-shaped contour, while in females this edge is short and “shaped” into a semicircle.

Tail and cloaca

To find out the gender in this case, you also need to pay attention to the shape and size. Boys have a wider and longer tail, because it is in it that the sexual organ is located. Consequently, females are deprived of such features - their tail is shorter and not thickened at the base.

It would also be useful to look at the location of the cloaca, which clearly identifies the sex of the pet. In females it is located closer to the base of the tail. and in appearance looks like a star. But the boys’ cloaca, on the contrary, can be located almost at the very edge of the tail and has the appearance of a fold, similar to a transverse line.

How to determine the sex of a land turtle?

Paws and shell

Many of the external sexual characteristics of the land turtle are similar or identical to those of the red-eared turtle. For example, in their case male claws are also longer, thicker and stronger than in females. And they serve a similar purpose: the need to stay on the female’s shell at the time of fertilization. But at the same time, the claws of land turtles are much more likely to be worn down due to their constant stay on the “land” of the terrarium. Therefore, you should not rely only on this sign, despite all its obviousness.

You can also determine the sex of an adult reptile by simply examining the shell.

Apart from the obvious presence of plastron concavity, the hind legs are almost always “equipped” with powerful spurs. Which, like the long claws in front, help him stay on his partner.

The female has a flat or even convex plastron shape. Its shell is larger, with distinct tubercles, which smooth out with age in males. But there is another characteristic feature- it bends strongly in the tail area.

Tail and cloaca shape

Here it is similar to aquatic turtles:

The male has a long tail, wide at the base and quickly tapering towards the end. With all this, he is almost always completely hidden under the shell.
The female has a thin and short tail located outside the shell.

An addition to this feature may be the shape and location of the cloaca on the tail. In females land turtle it, like the red-eared one, has the outline of a star and is located at the base of the tail. In males - closer to the middle or even the tip, in shape approaching the longitudinal stripe.

The ancient reptile keeps many secrets under its shell. If you decide to give a name to a charming turtle, then first you should find out its gender. Today we will talk about how to determine the sex of a turtle based on obvious signs!

Disguising itself as an inconspicuous stone on land and in water, the turtle outlived the dinosaurs, which were too flashy and poorly adapted to change. Its extreme durability and funny appearance have made it a favorite among exotic lovers. And why, exactly, HER? Is there a male reptile living in an aquarium or box in your home? It's not that easy to spot!

Today we will try to reveal the secret hidden under the impenetrable “house” by explaining how to find out the gender of a turtle, be it land or sea. By the way, despite the similarity and belonging to the same “family,” these species have enormous differences not only in terms of habitat!

The turtle is one of the oldest animals. It has inhabited our planet for more than 220 million years.

How to determine the sex of land turtles: main signs

External “sexual” characteristics appear in turtles upon reaching maturity. When talking about how to determine the sex of land turtles, we will only talk about adult individuals. So, to determine the gender, you need to take a close look at the pet, turning it over and studying all the parameters. There are 2 main “indicators” of a turtle’s sex:

Plastron is the lower (abdominal) part of the shell.
Tail.

Females have a completely flat plastron. You can see this by turning the turtle over. The male has a distinctly concave plastron, which is quite understandable and reasonable if you remember exactly how mating occurs in these reptiles.

The sex of a land turtle can also be determined by its paws: the claws of males are an order of magnitude longer than those of females

Helps determine the sex of land turtles and compare their tails. So, in males the tail is longer, and on the plastron next to it there is a pattern in the form of the letter “V”. In addition, males have pronounced femoral spurs.

How to determine the sex of red-eared turtles: 5 sure signs

“Little Reds” are amazingly beautiful and always seem to be a little embarrassed. Scarlet spots on the head - distinctive feature, which gave its name to the red-eared turtles. To find out the gender of the “red lady”, you will have to carefully observe her behavior and external attributes.

In adult males red-eared turtle more a long tail, “girls” have a shorter tail

Do you want to know exactly how to determine the sex of red-eared turtles so that you can accurately identify “girls” and “boys”? Look out for the following 5 signs:

Look at the ponytail! In the male it is longer and thinner. The red-eared female has a wider tail, as the oviduct is located in it.
The female's anus is located closer to the carapace - the upper part of the shell.
Males are much more active and display a violent temperament in the presence of relatives, demonstrating their superiority and pursuing females.
The diameter of the hole between the carapace and plastron is larger in females, as they lay eggs.
Puberty “girls”, as a rule, are much larger than their “boys” peers.

The turtle represents invulnerability, immortality, wisdom and longevity. Now you also have a little turtle wisdom, since, thanks to new knowledge, determining the sex of a reptile has become a completely solvable problem!

Often the gender of the pet is decisive when purchasing it. But if determining the sex of a dog or cat is not particularly difficult even for non-professionals, then determining the sex of a land turtle is much more difficult.

Knowledge about belonging to specific sex of land turtle may be useful if the owner plans to breed them, and simply when choosing a nickname and selecting the placement of individual individuals.

Sex of a land turtle It is possible to determine with great accuracy when an individual is already at sexual maturity. This is approximately 1.5-2 years. Gender can be determined by certain external characteristics.

If you carefully examine the paws of a reptile, you can see the difference between male and female specimens. female. Males have much stronger, thicker and longer claws than females. This is due to the need to fixate their body during the mating period. Females have claws small size and stupid.

However, the length of the claws is not a 100% indicator for determining the sex of a land turtle. A reptile's claws can wear down throughout its life. It depends on the conditions in which the turtle lives and what kind of covering is in the aquarium, as well as the duration of its stay on land.

Sex determination by shell

Another way to determine the sex of a land turtle is by examining its shell - the plastron. If the turtle has a concave plastron, as well as prominent skin growths on the thighs, the so-called femoral spurs, then it is a male. He needs these skin growths to stay on the female during mating.

The female is characterized by a flat shell. In all female individuals, the concavity is almost invisible or completely absent. The male can be identified by its concave abdomen, and the female by its flat or slightly convex abdomen.

Examination of the back of the shell will also help determine the sex of the pet. The male's carapace in the tail area is strongly curved towards the ground. The shell completely covers its tail. Females have a small tail and are completely visible from under the shell.

Females capable of mating are characterized by the presence of visible tubercles on the shell. Males also have similar tubercles at an early age, but as they grow older these tubercles smooth out. Males that have reached sexual maturity have no tubercles and a smooth carapace.

In addition, the shells of male and female turtles differ in shape. In males, the shell has an oblong shape. In females, on the contrary, the shell is wider and rounder.

Turtle tail

In males, the genital organ is located in the tail. The shape of their tail has some peculiarity. It is quite long and widens at its base. Females, on the contrary, have a thin and short tail.

Shape of the cloaca in turtles

The shape of its cloaca will tell you about the sex of a land turtle. Female turtles have a cloaca that is shaped like a star. It is located almost on the edge of its shell. In males, on the contrary, the cloaca is located at some distance from the shell and has the appearance of a longitudinal strip.

Other sexual characteristics in turtles

The sex of a land turtle can be determined by its size. In order for females to bear healthy offspring, nature created them bigger size. The difference in size between a male and a female is especially noticeable if several individuals live in the aquarium at the same time.

You can determine the sex of turtles by the color of their eyes. Most often in females the eyes yellow color, and males have brown eyes.

You can also determine the sex of reptiles by their behavior. The difference is especially noticeable in mating season. It is by behavior that you can find out as accurately as possible where the turtle is female and where it is male.

Males, in order to impress females, behave extremely actively and even aggressively with their relatives. They usually start fights and attack each other, while biting their opponents on parts of the body not protected by the shell.

Male turtles demonstrate all their advantages in front of females. It's like a kind of dance. The males begin to swing their front legs, intensively move their heads from top to bottom, actively move their tails and make attempts to climb onto the females.

When fighting, males turn over on their backs and strike each other with their clawed paws. This behavior is not typical for females. Females are always calm and leisurely, even during the mating season.

For each species, and there are more than a dozen of them, except common features The definition of gender has its own individual characteristics, characteristic only for it. This could be the color of the eyes, nose or special shape tail Only a specialist can determine gender based on such characteristics.

In addition, belonging to the female or male is determined already at sexual maturity, so when buying a small turtle in a store, this will not be possible. Therefore, it is better to give your pet a nickname that will suit him regardless of gender.

Many animal lovers have problems determining gender pet, but if the differences in the structure of primary sexual characteristics in cats and dogs are more or less clear to all of us, then the task of finding out whether a red-eared turtle is male or female can baffle anyone.

Fortunately, in reality everything is not as difficult as it seems.

How to find out the gender of a red-eared slider: basic methods

In order not to be confused, let us immediately clarify: the sex of a red-eared turtle can be determined by a person who is not a herpetologist (as specialists who study reptiles are called) only after the reptile reaches “marriage age.”

It is for this reason that all sources note that the sex of a red-eared turtle can be determined starting from the age of 5–7 years (before this period, all individuals look like females).

Important! The red-eared turtle lives for about 30 years, and the reptile reaches sexual maturity between 6–8 years. When kept at home, this age shifts slightly: boys become adults by 4, girls by 5–6 years.

There are several signs that allow you to distinguish a male from a female, but in order for the “expertise” to be as reliable as possible, you should use all of them, and only by comparing the study of each parameter, draw a general conclusion.

Claw length

Claws, oddly enough, help determine the sex of a reptile better than all other criteria. It is enough to see a photo or video of the “toes” of the front paws of a male and female red-eared turtle once to appreciate and remember their fundamental differences.
The length of the claws of males is longer than that of females, and significantly. By the time he reaches puberty, such a serious tool is simply necessary for the “gentleman”, otherwise he will not be able to stay on the slippery shell of the “lady” at the most crucial moment of sexual intercourse, and the process of fertilization will not occur.

Girls have no need for such “accessories”, so their claws are short and blunt.

True, there is one problem. Male turtles kept in captivity sometimes grind off their long and sharp claws on too rough pebbles in the aquaterrarium, therefore, after carefully examining the reptile’s paws, we proceed to study the following parameters.

Carapace

Another rather informative part of the body of a turtle, from the point of view of identifying its gender, is the shell, and to be more precise, its abdominal part (it is called the plastron), since it is under it, in the area of the tail, that the genitals of the reptile are located, causing the differences in the structure of the protective frame.
The lower plate of the reptile’s shell contains four clues at once that allow one to determine the sex, namely:

The lower plate of the shell in males has a narrower, elongated shape, while in females the plastron is more flattened.
In the area of the tail, the plastron is pointed in boys, and rounded in girls.
In the same area (near the tail), the plastron in males is slightly concave inward, in females it is completely flat. This change in shape allows the male to fix the inseminator in the female’s genitals at the time of sexual intercourse.
The plastron of males always has a bluish tint; in females it can be different.

Did you know? In 2008, Chinese scientists put an end to a long scientific dispute about why a turtle actually needs a shell. It turns out that this hard shell initially served the reptiles not as protection at all, but... as a digging tool, with the help of which, in combination with wide ribs and powerful front paws, the reptiles could easily get to the water. In the process of evolution, however, the shell ceased to fulfill its original purpose, turning into excellent armor. True, it is precisely this armor that the turtle owes its slowness, which has become a household word.

Tail and cloaca

The tail of males is noticeably thicker and longer than that of females, since it is under it that the penis is hidden. Another important indicator is that ladies' ponytails have almost the same thickness along the entire length, while boys' ponytails are much wider at the base than at the tip.
It should be noted that many breeders evaluate the sex of their pets precisely on this basis, considering it as simple as possible.

Important! The penis of a turtle can sometimes be visually observed; in particular, at the time of defecation, it can turn outward. Having seen this once, no problems will arise with identifying the gender of this particular individual.

The cloaca (anal opening) of both sexes of the red-eared slider differs both in shape and location.

So, in boys this hole is located closer to the end of the tail, approximately in its last third, and in girls it is closer to its base, almost at the plastron.

The shape of the cloaca in female turtles resembles a star, in boys it resembles a longitudinal line.

In addition, in the tail area of the female there is a rather large hole intended for laying eggs.

Extra options

Everything that was stated above can be conditionally attributed to the primary sexual characteristics of turtles, however, like other animals, there are also secondary characteristics to determine gender. They are less obvious, but you still shouldn’t ignore them.

Body size and head shape

In biology, the differences between males and females of the same species are anatomical features, not directly related to the structure of the genital organs, is called sexual dimorphism. One of its main features is such a criterion as size.

In red-eared turtles, females are usually larger than males. This feature is explained by the fact that females must bear and lay eggs, but it should be noted that for many other representatives of this order the situation is the opposite.
You need to understand that, firstly, size is a relative concept, and secondly, it is influenced not only by gender, but also by the age of the turtle and the conditions of its detention.

Did you know? In nature, males are usually larger (larger and heavier) than females in mammals, birds, and lizards. In fish, sexual dimorphism is expressed differently depending on the species, but in amphibians, arthropods, snakes and turtles, females are more impressive in size. However, a number of turtles, in particular, Galapagos, South African beak-breasted, desert, box, marsh, cayman, yellow mud turtles - are characterized by larger males and small females.

In general, this sign cannot be considered particularly reliable and convenient from a practical point of view: it is impossible to determine the sex by the size of a single reptile (you need to see at least a couple in order to have something to compare with), in addition, when considering several individuals, you need to be absolutely sure the fact that they are the same age and lived in the same conditions.

It is interesting that, being smaller in size, male red-eared turtles, as befits representatives of the stronger sex, look stronger and stronger than their female companions. In particular, their paws are decorated with impressive femoral spurs.
Experienced breeders can also distinguish turtles by the shape of their faces. The same rule that was mentioned when describing the tail of reptiles is observed here: the male has a more elongated muzzle, and the female has a rounded muzzle.

Important! When establishing the sex of a reptile, you need to take into account the fact that improper maintenance of a red-eared slider can cause a hormonal disorder in the animal, as a result of which many gender differences (except for the primary ones, of course) can be erased or “twisted”.

For self-checking, we can highlight several more signs of sexual dimorphism in red-eared turtles:

hind legs: in males, small scales can be observed on them, in females this distinctive feature is absent;
nose: in boys it is smaller and more pointed;
head: the longitudinal stripe on the side of males has a brighter red color, this is especially visible during the mating season;
upper jaw: for girls it is green, for boys it is whitish.

Behavior

Differences in the behavior of turtles of different sexes can only be observed during the mating season and if there is a couple in close proximity to whom such behavior can be demonstrated. For this reason, this criterion cannot be called convenient, but you should still be aware of it.

$mob_info$