Reptile & Amphibian Forums

this a slightly better veiw of the claws on my RES. He/She is looking rather peeved at me for taking so many pics ...

i was also wondering about her/his shell and what people call "pyramiding" and if thats the case with mine?

What a cutie! You are obviously very proud of your baby!!! She looks a lot like my RES. I say "she" because her claws are MUCH shorter than my male RES so I'm guessing it's a female. Mine is only 2 years old, and although they say you won't be able to tell their sex until they are I think like 4 or 5 years old, I know mine is a male because his "you-know-what" comes out every now and then, even when he's just swimming around the tank! The base of his tail is VERY thick and the hole is farther away from his shell than my female's. If this is not the case with yours, and since her nails are so short, I'd say she's a female. But I'm no expert, so you may have to wait and see!

In the very first picture you posted (a couple of days ago) I could see from the reflection on the bottom of the aquarium that the anal opening is very close to the tip of the tail. Wouldn't that suggest that your turtle is a boy? Could some other people also take a look and tell me if my observation was correct?!

I'm not sure about all that but I think its a boy as well. You can tell by the nails. I mean yea the nails aren't that long now but aren't they longer then females? I have 2 mails with extremely long nails now that they are old, but when they were young they had similar nails. The "middle" nail especially grows long and this picture already shows that. Female nails are less like claws and more like stubs I suppose

Ok, here is the only pic I have of both male and female together showing off their tails. the male is on the left and the female on the right. the male's cloacal opening is farther away from the shell than the females. I know these are painted turtles, but Im pretty sure RES are built the same way.

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