How do you tell the sex of a turtle?

Answer 1

look for these answers on boxturtlesite.org or anapsid.org

There are many methods on how to tell the sex of a turtle. Many are based on pure experience having been around males and females to tell the difference. If you don't have anything to compare to, or you have a young turtle, it's going to be pretty much a guess.

Males generally have:
Longer, thicker tails
vent opening protrudes farther past the edge of the plastron
a flatter carapce
a concave depression in the plastron
a rear inside toe nail that hooks inward ( though sometimes it looks like the females do to )

Females generally have:
shorter, thinner tails
a higher domed carapace
vent opening is closer to the posterior of the body at the base of the tail
no concave area in the plastron
females are generally bigger in most species for a given age

Ignore length of toenails. That doesn't matter. I found a 20 year old female Three-Toed Box last year that had rear nails about 2 inches long.

Some people like to claim they can tell by color, but this is just a guess. Reptiles are highly variable in coloration and those rules ( such as eye color ) do not always hold true.

I have a hybrid baby ( "Three-Toed" T. c. t. / "Ornate" T. o. o. ) that I wasn't able to tell for sure what his sex was until he reached sexual maturity at about 4 years old. Genetics played a few tricks and made it harder to distinguish some features.

Answer 2

Look at the belly. Males have a concave, or pushed in belly, and females have a flat belly. It makes it easier for the male and female to mate.

Answer 3

Ask it nicely.

Answer 4

males have really long nails. REALLY long.