Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this is the wrong forum for this but there is too much knowledge in here to pass up.
background: I have been keeping and breeding GA on and off for about 15 years so I thought that I knew a thing or two about sexing them. seems easy enough to spot a concave plastron and aggro behavior right?
About 2 mo ago I was given a sub adult resue ( my only breedable size currently so no courting was observed ) who upon inspection appeared to be showing the early signs of a concave underside and aggro behavior ( head bobbing and ramming ) toward some smaller GA as well as a male russian when given the chance.
Well I came two days ago and saw that he/she had dug a small bowl, when I got home yesterday he/she was over the bowl that now had a small cyl dug in as if to nest, this was the case until the cool down of the evening. if this is a female it very well may be the first clutch which I know can stretch the process out over some time.

My big question is does any one know of other sexing techniques?
I noticed the glands on the chin are not prodominant, eyes are a striking yellow, guller scute dont seem huge but it is a young tort still. But most noticable is a small stubbie tail.
any GA folks out there, I know Crutchfeld is out here with alot of tort time, any info will be helpful.
thank you.

I've only ever had one GA in my life because they have always been protected. Even the one I had was given to me by an employee who moved to Florida fron CA. I have maintained and bred many species of tortoise but GA are not among the list. Based on your info I would say it's a female for sure and many chelonians dig test holes before actually laying eggs. My radiata used to do this all the time. My guess is that she will nest soon but unless you catch her in the act tortoise nests can be DIFFICULT to find. We produce a lot of albino Red Ear Turtles and they dig false nests constantly as well. For a three year period in the 1990's I bred the giant Bolivian Redfoots BUT all my babies were found walking around the enclosure. NOT ONCE did I find them nesting or find a single nest...LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Thanks Tom... I knew you would tke the bait eventuallY!
I agree about the nest issues, if she does slip a nest past me the babies will surface in a secure pen.

Your opinions and experiance is very valuable to this web site and to those of us enjoy each others posts.

KEN