Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I unexpectedly acquired a young (~1yr) CB Spotted Turtle recently that was "supposed" to be a female. The person who originally purchased it said the breeder claimed it was (would be) a female, but I had my doubts when I first saw it (it was ~3in CL then). It has since grown a bit and has now clearly developed male secondary sexual characteristics (plastron concavity, tail thickness, cloacal position, eye color).

Now here is the strange part... When I first got him (for free) he was housed with several small/young Midland Painted turtles. Some of these were females and he began getting very frisky with them. This didn't really surprise me as it pretty much seems to be par for the course with male turtles. He has since gotten his own enclosure, but I recently purchased an 07 CB female for him. Although young, she is already showing pretty reliable characteristics of a female. At any rate, I've read how aggressive male C. guttata can be, so I decided to introduce them very slowly. He seemed very curious at first and slowly followed her around. She is very alert and active and did not seem too concerned about him, so I allowed them increasing (supervised) access to each other. He has since seemed to lose interest in her and I am now housing them together.

Anyone had similar experiences with introducing male and female Spotteds? After how actively he chased and mounted the Painted turtles, I thought for sure he would go to town on this little female. Maybe he recognizes that she is immature (though I think he may be as well) and so he doesn't bother. I wonder if he is picking up on (or not picking up on) some hormonal scent cues? That said, I wonder if this could quickly and without warning change on me?

I do not have experience with introducing males to females and vica-versa, though I hope to in the near future. But I have always read and heard that, like you said, spotted males are really aggressive when mating, and it's recommended to keep at least two or three females to each male.

What I DO have experience with, is unreliable sexing of spotteds from breeders, such as you experienced. I was sold mine as a male in Feb. 07 and HE is showing to actually be a female, and several of the more seasoned spotted veterans on this forum "spotted" that he was actually a she from the second I bought her. Sufficed to say, I actually prefer having a female (since I'll need to get at least one more, and a male) and not having to spend an extra $50 for a female, except for the fact that her name is Julius.

I have two males that I've housed with females (at different times, since one bullies the other mercilessly). The meaner male is always game for chasing the girls, but he always seems to prefer to go after the one who's the same size he is. I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that a female that was too small might make it difficult for the male to latch onto her shell at all four corners. As far as checking the girls out goes, my active mail always seems to nose around their tails before giving chase. I don't know if he's looking for visual clues like we use to sex them, or perhaps smelling/tasting something to let him know they're ripe for the picking.

My other male has no interest at all in the girls. Since he doesn't majorly stress them out the way the other guy does, he gets to stay in the pond with them all the time (unless I put the stud in there to do his magic--then the gentleman gets pulled out for his own protection). I'm planning on cooling or hibernating them all this winter, and I hope that'll get everyone on the same page breeding-wise for next year.

if you read down a couple threads,you'll see my old post.i have a male spotty that will mount everything.everything,it seems,but my female spotted.he went wild over a female eastern painted that was temporarily housed with him(less than 2 hrs total),right in front of everyone.he's gone after a much larger(almost twice his size)yellow-bellied slider that i put him with
for s&g's,just to see his response.he is just not interested in parker,what a shame.oh well,maybe next year.
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1.1 cb spotted turtles (parker(f),stinky(m))
0.0.1 cb baby red cheek mud (pickles)
0.0.1 cb baby chiapas musk (chomper)
0.0.3 wc baby stinkpots (inky,blinky,&dot)
1.1 wc eastern mud turtles (george & jane)
1.0 cb eastern painted turtle (fred)
0.0.1 mississippi map (lil' dummy)
0.0.1 cb ally snapper (gamera)
0.0.2 red-eared sliders(kaelan's classroom pets,summer babysitting)
1.0 cb06 albino corn (rusty)
0.0.1 cb07 apalachicola kingsnake
0.0.1 wc halloween crab
0.1 irritating cat (sassy )
2.0 cb children (sidney,13 & kaelan,5)
0.1 wc wife (danae,age withheld due to fears for personal safety)

"my name is inigo montoya...you killed my father.prepare to die."

Megalon, did you see my post a few down? You should post some pics of your new male!

i'll try,but i have 2 small problems with that.
1,i only have a camera on my phone right now,and
2,i actually have no idea on how to post a pick.i know that i can send pics from my phone to this one website,but how would i set up a link to that site?i'm relatively computer illiterite,btw.
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1.1 cb spotted turtles (parker(f),stinky(m))
0.0.1 cb baby red cheek mud (pickles)
0.0.1 cb baby chiapas musk (chomper)
0.0.3 wc baby stinkpots (inky,blinky,&dot)
1.1 wc eastern mud turtles (george & jane)
1.0 cb eastern painted turtle (fred)
0.0.1 mississippi map (lil' dummy)
0.0.1 cb ally snapper (gamera)
0.0.2 red-eared sliders(kaelan's classroom pets,summer babysitting)
1.0 cb06 albino corn (rusty)
0.0.1 cb07 apalachicola kingsnake
0.0.1 wc halloween crab
0.1 irritating cat (sassy )
2.0 cb children (sidney,13 & kaelan,5)
0.1 wc wife (danae,age withheld due to fears for personal safety)

"my name is inigo montoya...you killed my father.prepare to die."

Don't worry, I'm computer ignorant as well and it took me a while to figure it out. I don't know how to do pics from a camera phone, but if you know how to get the pics from your camera onto your computer, you compress them for websites in a program like Microsoft Picture Manager and save. Then you click on Spotted Photo Gallery right under the heading of the forum and click on Upload Photo on the top right and then just browse, find your pic/file and click on it and then click upload at the bottom of the upload photo page. You will then have a list of photos you can click when you're posting something! Good luck!