I have a 5 inch plus turtle that I think is female because the plastron is only slightly concave.( almost flat) Any comments would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
At what size can you accurately sex North American Woods?
spottedturtleman
Dec 15, 2003 05:43 PM
Replies (6)
Andy799
Dec 15, 2003 06:06 PM
I would say if it is already starting to concave, it is probably a male, i have a 5" n.a. wood and its looking to be female, mine is 3 years old and was temp sex for female so i am 100% sure mine is, but if yours already has some slight concaving starting your probably looking at a male but probably won't know for sure till around 6-7" inless you see some other sign
Andy
Jesse S.
Dec 15, 2003 07:17 PM
NA woods are not TSD, rather their sex is determined by genetics. Whoever told you that either didn't know or was lying.
-Jesse
prpipes1
Dec 16, 2003 06:56 AM
The sex of N.A. woods is genetic and I would saw that as far as what age you can tell at would be around 3 years or when they are 4 to 5 inches in a straight line across there carapace
Odyssey
Dec 20, 2003 09:35 PM
Males are sexually mature at carapace lengths of 7.5 to 8 inches; females at 6.25 to 7.25 inches. This is between 14 and 18 years old.
Fairly accurate visual sexing might be possible slightly earlier than this, if you have a good standard for comparison to your actual specimens. The best photo that I’ve seen is the one shown below. Female is on the left; male is on the right; juvenile in the middle.
Compare your turtles to it and see what you find.
(I apologize for not remembering the source of the picture.)
spottedturtleman
Dec 21, 2003 06:57 AM
She is a little smaller than the female but her tail is the same. That male has a huge tail and I would think that my turtles tail would be larger if it was a male. Even though I really need a male, I wouldn't be upset if she happend to be my third female.
prpipes1
Dec 27, 2003 10:51 PM
Hello I actually have that trio in my possession and I truly beleive that the juvenile is a female. A friend of mine in P.A. has woods much smaller that are visibly male and two three 7 year old females with one having clutched at least once so lets just say that when they are captive bred and fed then we take away a whole lot of enviromental pressures and add in a lot of vit's and minerals as well as perfect temps at least for the first few years until we place them into an outside pen. If the turtle in question meets the above description then and there is no concavity then it is probably a Female.
