How to tell how if a tortoise is a male or female ?

Question

i am currently looking after a tortoise & the owner does not no its s*x i i am very curios of what s*x it is is there any way to tell ?

i don't no if the age matters but shes had it for about 30 years :)

its well looked after.

Answer 1

if the underside of shell is flat its a female if its dented inward its a male.

Answer 2

Look at the underside of it's shell. If it is concurve, (inward facing) then it is a male. If it is flat, the animal is female. Males have shells like that so that they can mount females' shells and mate. You can also look at their tails. Males have long tails, whereas females have stubby ones. Also, when males are in water, e.g. water bowl, or bathing water, their genitalia sometimes comes out of the tail. This is called a 'prolapse'. The reasons for this are unknown.

Answer 3

You didn't say what kind of tortoise it is, but i think it's the same with any , the male has a con caved shell so that it fits over the female s shell while mating.

Answer 4

All this about having a concave plastron is completely wrong for the smaller tortoise species and is often only observed in much larger species. The best way to s*x is to post a picture on this forum of the underside of the tort on the sexing/identification section. So the species and s*x can be identified.

http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/forum/

Answer 5

heard this on animal park once, the way to s*x a tortoise is to check the shape of it's underside, if it's rounded it's male. This is so it doesn't slide off of the female while mating. Females are flat as they don't mount anything.

Answer 6

at 30 years old you should be able to tell quite easily the s*x, the males shell underneath  tends to be concave (dips in) and the females straight but sometimes the female does have a concave shell so the best way is too look at the tail, a males tail is long and thinner than a females and he will keep it to one side when he walks the female tail is short and dumpy almost triangular in shape here is a site that will show you pictures of the male and female tail   http://www.russiantortoise.net/male_fema...   i know they are russian tortoises but all tortoises have the same shape tail but you can clearly see the difference between a male and female, hope it helps best of luck honey

Answer 7

Yep I agree with what has been said.  Males plastrons (under shell) are concaved or indented.  Their tales are also generally longer.

Male tortoise are nearly always more confident too.  Mine will come up to me in the enclosures and they will nipple my shoes!  If their is no female to mate with they will normally find an alternative.  My  male love the yard broom when his lady has had enough of him.  He will butt it around the garden and then climb on it to do what tortoises do best! LOL  In other words every male tortoise I know is randy and you know you have them.  Females are more subdude and are no trouble!