How to tell Sulcata Tortoises Gender?

Question

I have 2 sulcatas and they're not even as big as 2 baseballs, but almost as big. How can i tell if they're both boys both girls, or boy+girl?

Answer 1

Look at where the cloaca is situated, if it's well beyond the plastron, you've got a male. If the cloaca is closely situated to the plastron, you've got a female. Also, males will have thick long tales and females have small tails.

There's no way to look at the shell to tell if they're male or female.

Also, they need to be at least 5'' or bigger to tell the correct gender.I hope i helped.

Answer 2

It is very difficult or impossible to determine if a sulcata is male or female especially when they are young. Additionally, there are very few differences between male and female sulcatas even when they are adults. The best way to determine s*x is by looking at the tail.  Males have a much longer tail than the females. When placed side-by-side it's usually obvious which is male and which is female. Females may have slightly flatter carapaces and males may have slightly more concave plastrons. Regardless, males and females can both be quite aggressive. Both males and females may ram each other and attempt to flip each other over in displays of dominance. Females will typically cease this type of behavior when they become sexually mature while males may engage in this behavior even more. Housing more than one male in an enclosure should therefore be avoided. here is a site that will show you the difference between the male and female tortoise tail http://www.chelonia.org/sexing/sexing_te...  i know it is for Russian tortoises but it was the only pictures i could find to show you, and tortoise tails are nearly all the same, you may have to wait until  your tortoises are between 5-10 years before you see any obvious signs, hope it helps best of luck honey.