Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All!! I have a question. I have tryed researching to figure out how to sex painted turtles. I have 4 wonderful turtles. I have had them ever since they hatched. I had the mother come up in my yard and lay her eggs.They are now 2 yrs old. I have them in a 75 gallon right now and I just bought a new tank that I'm going to be putting them in. It is a 240 gallon. So I'm very excited to get it set up. But anyway. I think they are all the same sex because they seem to look exactly alike. But can someone help me with figuring it out.?

Thanks

Hi there!
The males will grow very long front nails, you'd think it would be the other way around because you'd think the females need the long nails for digging but they have really short front nails.
Males use those long nails to wave at females when they're courting.
Females will have a short stubby little dainty tail the males will have a longer thicker tail with the cloaca opening farther away from the plastron (bottom shell) than the females.
If you have males one day you'll walk in on them like I did & he'll be showing you he's a boy.. which will freak you out the first time you see it lol but he'll stuff it back in & look embarrassed lol.

Males often have a concave plastron while the female's is totally flat but sometimes it's hard to see if it's concave or not so I go by the tail & the nails moreso than whether or not that plastron is concave.
Good luck with your little ones.. do you have any pictures of them to share?
I love to look at other people's pics.
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PHRatz

Hi And thanks for the fast message. I'm so confused when trying to sex them. Seems to me that they would be all females, because they all look alike and there nails dont seem to be to long. but I guess they are., maybe I could take some pictures and send them to ya. I did see one of them waving its hands in fron tof the face of another turtle but the other turtle didnt seem to like it cause it swam away..FAST..was to funny.

but again thanks

Well that would make sence if they were all female because they were in the same clutch. Turtles are all male or female in the clutch of eggs depending on the temp. So its most likely that they are all female. You would be able to tell if its a male because they have much longer nails.

I think they are probably still too young to be completely
accurate.

Tails on the males are longer and the opening is close
to the end of the tail. The females have a short tail and
the opening is very close to the shell. In adults turtles
this is the sure way to sex them.

Linda

>>I think they are probably still too young to be completely
>>accurate.
>>

That I agree with. If they're only 2 it's probably going to be at least another year before anyone could tell for certain. If I recall correctly, my male did begin to grow much longer nails at 2 years of age but I didn't know for sure that he was a boy until he was at least 3.
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PHRatz

Oh OK. Thanks all that replyed. What about if one of them waves its hands in the face of another turtle? Does that make a difference?...thanks again everyone

From the research I've done on turtles, the claws of the male turtle are used in courtship of a mate. They are used to rub on the shell of female turtles in order to woo them.

Jordan Worley

Here is the other way to tell for most aquatic turtles.

In the picture below, male is on the left, female on the right. I believe this extra distance from the shell comes in handy when having to curl your tail around the females during copulation. As for the longer claws of the male, I always thot they were for holding on during the deed.

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