Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How does one tell the diffence in a painted turtles sex???they have no skirt to lift...

Males will have longer claws and a small indent on the under side of their shell (this is so they can mount the female), the male also has a shorter thick tale. The female has shorter claws, a flat belly and a longer thin tail. Mostly look at the claws they are a dead giveaway.

Just wanted to add that these traits can only be accurately determined in turtles that are around 4" or larger.

never mind hes already brought my point up

i'm not soo sure about water turtles, but i know that with box turtles it takes a while before these traits appear. Probably alot less in water than land, but the turtle will most likely need to be nearing maturity to be able to tell. agree?

Box turtle males have longer claws? I always went by eye color, with males being orange or red, and females being yellow or brown.

Box turtles do not have longer claws for males. Males will sometimes have very slightly larger claws on the rear feet, and their rear claws will often have more curve to them than a female's. These are not very definative methods of sexing box turtles, and neither is eye color. Females can sometimes have reddish eyes and males often have eyes that are only slightly reddish. For box turtles the most definitive method is observing the depression in the rear lobe of the plastron in males.

If you check out Austinsturtlepage.com, there's a page on sexing turtles. They have real good close up shots of a painted male and female.
As far as when you can tell the sex.
My own painteds are only 9 months old, and they are definitely both females.
My Maps are the same age and they are both obviously males.
At about 7 months it became apparent what each turtle was. The Maps front claws grew to a 1/2" long and their tails got real thick. Plus they have both put out their penises which really put the icing on the cake. They're constantly doing the courtship dance with each other, one of these days they'll figure out they're both guys!
The Painteds tails are toothpick thin and their front feet are like clubs with tiny little claws. They display none of the courtship stuff like the Maps. Female all the way.
Bob from Philadelphia.