Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there everyone!

This issue crops up occasionally: new turtle keepers having a difficult time determining the gender of their Three Toed. From what I've read/heard from various sources, it can be challenging.

I don't keep them myself (Easterns only here), but I wondered if some of the longtime keepers out there would share tips on sexing this sub-species.

Thanks in advance,
Stephanie

I think the trick is, don't rely on any character as infallable. Three-toeds are one of the most variable turtles out there, both in color and shape, which makes sex determination by morphology difficult in some specimens. All of the other U.S. varieties of this species seem (to me) to show a little more gravity in their dimorphisms, although easterns can occasionally be confusing as well.

The good ole concave/convex plastra, tail length, and eye color characteristics do hold up sometimes, but not others. There are plenty of females out there that have eyes that are much "redder" than those of many males. Similarly, males can have totally white eyes (excepting the pupils); which category (brown/red) does that fit into?

Claws on the hind limbs are longer in some males, carapaces are less aerodynamic-looking in some females, but, all of these are characteristics that don't hold up with enough consistency to prove reliable.

The easiest way to tell is, once you've seen enough of them, you get a "feel" for gender determination, and, you still make mistakes. The best approach is likely to take as many of the (aforementioned) characteristics and weigh them against one another collectively rather than relying on any one or two alone.

To make matters even more difficult, even the turtles don't always initially judge a conspecific's gender properly (although actions such as below can sometimes represent phases of male/male combat). The two below did have it right.

There are no hard and fast rules that hold up using morphological characteristics.

If it produces eggs... Female.
If viable eggs are produced and 2 are present...the other is a Male.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

About that second part...

Since most three-toeds in the pet trade are still wild-caught animals, two animals together plus viable eggs from one doesn't equal a pair. Box turtles are capable of sperm storage for many years, so captive egg laying (from a wild-caught animal) could represent mom reconjuring part of an old coupling just as easily as it could indicate her living with a new Romeo at the time of laying.

Life is like a box... turtle. You never know what you're gonna get.

>>Life is like a box... turtle. You never know what you're gonna get.

Great quote!
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PHRatz

Yea, I guess you can complicate things buy adding more information than you have to and muddying up the basic point.

And... yes you are correct... so all bets are off and you really can't be sure of what sex you have in the case of males.

>>About that second part...
>>
>>Since most three-toeds in the pet trade are still wild-caught animals, two animals together plus viable eggs from one doesn't equal a pair. Box turtles are capable of sperm storage for many years, so captive egg laying (from a wild-caught animal) could represent mom reconjuring part of an old coupling just as easily as it could indicate her living with a new Romeo at the time of laying.
>>
>>Life is like a box... turtle. You never know what you're gonna get.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

I for one just want to state that I appreciate your excellent posts and the precise thought given them. Time commitments have prevented me from posting in a while; but I do glance at the forum often.
Ric

I didn't realize until recently that people do have a hard time sexing 3 toeds.
These desert ornates are so very easy to sex. The male tails are huge, long, and fat. I've noticed too that these wild males tend to have much heavier thicker looking rear legs than females do. It's just extremely easy to tell the diff in these ornates.
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PHRatz