Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i was just wondering how you tell the difference between the male and the female RES. up until now, i have never questioned the male identity of my two turtles, as they both have the same sized tails. i read somewhere females have shorter tails. but now, as they have grown a bit, im seeing some differences. one of them has MUCH longer nails, but is a bit smaller. the shell patterns on this one are also a lot more convoluted on the underside than the other one in the tank.
the other one, however, has relatively short nails and is larger. only has 8 discernable spots on its underside. usually less aggressive, unless there is food to be eaten.

Here is what i have learned about sexing RES turtles:
Males have a long tail and very long nails, and the Females have short nails and a short stubby tail.
~ Hope this helps!
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~ Evie

Pets:
German Shephard {Dusty}
German Shephard/Collie mix {Shadoe}
2 RES turtles {Booger and Snot}
African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
Snail {Gary}

Sounds like you have a pair. The females get larger than the males and the males have very long front claws. The shell patterns are random and have nothing to do with the sexes. Hope you have large enough accomodations. Those females get big. 10 plus inches in shell length. The largest girl I ever had was 13 inches and I actually saw several OLD OLD females in excess of 14 inches.

You obviously have a pair, the one with the long nails is the male. If you can inspect the underside of the tails, you may notice that the cloacal opening on the male is farther out from the shell than the females. See illustration. This allows the male when mating to wrap his tail underneath the females to achive copulation. Turtles always do it doggy style.

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