How do you know if a red eye slider turtle is a boy our a girl?

Answer 1

If your turtle is under 4" in diameter, then there is no difinative way to tell. There are, however, ways that you can get you kind of closer to a determination. After turtles are over about 2" in diameter these traits will start to accurately show. Males have longer front claws than females whose front claws tend to be short and stubby; males have long thick tails which females once again have short and stubby; males shells tend to be more concave (dip inwards) while females shells tend to me more convex (dip outwards) or flat; and the only TRUE and definative way to tell is to look at their cloca (anus) where males cloca is about 1/2 way out on the tail and females are very close to the body. You can't acurately sex them until they are 4" in diameter because when smaller, all of their clocas are close to the body which would result in all being sexed as female when this is not the case.

Answer 2

Well you've already heard the part about how they are more easily sexed once they are 4 years old.

Actually these small differences are already present when they are still little. It's harder to see but the males have thinner and longer tails than the females.

The females also tend to be a lighter green compared to the males. But this won't be very obvious unless you've got a whole tankful of RES to compare with.

Head down to the nearest pet store and take a look. Then go back and see if you can observe what you noticed.

Answer 3

You can't usually tell unless they are 4 yrs. Males have much longer claws front claws (used for mating). While the females' are short. The male also has a longer and thicker tail then a female. Females usually grow faster and get bigger then males do. Also the male's plastron will slightly curve inward toward the tail.

Answer 4

See this link: http://www.redearslider.com/determining_sex.html

You can tell from the claw length and tail, but your RES should be at least 4 years old before you can tell for certain. Females will also be larger than males as adults.