Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My turtle is only a few months old and I saw him perform the "mating dance" to my other turtle the other day. Does that mean that the other turtle is definitely a female or can the male just not tell the difference? Also, I read that they don't reach sexual maturity until they're about 5 inches or 5 years old - is it normal that my boy is such a stud at such a young? age

if the mating dance you refer to is the vibrating of claws, my less than one year old female does it to the male all the time. She also does it to fish, rocks, and my driftwood.
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My two males do it at each other all the time.

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np

How big are your RES? I love the mating dance photo and I noticed that your turts shells look like mine do, not completely smooth. I thought mine were pyramiding, although they are by no means overfed. Do you, or anyone else, think that the slightly raised scutes are something to be concerned about?

Nancy

The big one in front is about 4.5 inches and the smaller one is a little under 4 inches. The big one does have some shell abnormalities due to overfeeding, but I have corrected their diet and his shell has smoothed out a lot since then.

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Thanks for the info!