Hey guys, Heather here from the Tye-Dyed Iguana, and today we're gonna go over how to tell the
difference between male and female tortoises. Now for each one of those species at our store, there's
a different way to tell. Some of them do have a few same ways to tell between males and females
for each one of them. Now for the three species we're gonna go over here at our store, there are
different ways to tell between male and female for each separate species. Some of them have more ways
to tell than others, and some have the same ways to tell, but we're gonna go over each one and we'll
see if we can figure out which is which. All right, so first up today we've got our Hermann's tortoise. Now
the best way to determine between male and female for this species, is to take a look at the tail
length. Now males will have much larger and longer tails than females, the females will have shorter,
stubbier, fat tails. And another way to tell is to look at the rear of the shell from the bottom, the
rear of the shell on male tortoises tends to curve inward toward the tortoise, whereas the female, the
shell curves straight towards the ground, down, it kind of points down towards the ground.
So now we're gonna take a look at this little guy or girl and see if we can tell if it's a guy or girl
by using that information. All right, so I am looking at our Hermann's tortoise and she, this one, has got
a very short stumpy tail, so I have a feeling this is a female. Yeah. And then with the shell
they said with the male, it points inwards where the female points straight towards the ground,
and this looks like it points straight towards the ground. For sure. Doesn't curve inward. So I believe,
we have a girl here. Yeah, you're a little girl. She looks pretty massive too, and they say that
females also get larger than males do, so. Yeah, I have a feeling you're a girl. All right, so next on
our list is the Russian tortoise. Now the way you tell between male and females of this species is
almost exactly like the Hermann's tortoise. You look at the length of the tail. Now, the two males
they will have a nice long, large tail with a slit like vent, and the females they'll have a short,
fat tail with an asterisk shape vent. Now, we're gonna go ahead and see if we can tell which of
these guys is which, by using that information. All right, so this little guy is a little bit shy,
so I don't know if he'll show us, but if you look at the tail, see how slit like that looks and how
long it is, and if I had to guess I'd say this is a boy. Definitely, nice longer vent, inner vent,
nice long tail. And for these guys, you can't tell between male and female by how concave the shell
is, that's something used in other tortoises like red foot tortoises, which we're gonna look at
next. All right, now we're gonna look at the second one we have, and if you look at this one's tail, can
see how short it is in comparison to that other one, and you see how it's a much rounder,
asterisk like shaped vent. If I had to guess I'd say this one is a female. So that's cool that we've
got an example of both. Yeah, you can definitely see how short that tail is. Yeah, the other one
had a really longer tail. One that was like, twice the length. All right, and I'm really quick, I'm gonna
show them side by side. So, he's gonna curl it up right now, but you can really see the difference.
See, that one is much shorter and that one is much larger, fat. Yep, definitely see the difference in
the tail tip right there, really short there. So, I'd say we have a boy and a girl, yep.
All right, so the third and final tortoise on our list is the red foot tortoise. Now these guys are
really easy to tell the difference between males and females, because they got so many different
ways, so many different characteristics that you can look at, that are different between male and
females. Now the first one and the most noticeable just from looking at them overhead, is you see how
Bill is a more hourglass shape than the females, he's kind of, his shell kind of tucks in in the
middle, and how these guys are nice and straight. The male's shell squeezes inward in the middle
and the four corners of his shell are the widest points of it. So yeah, it's a, it's very noticeable
in this guy, very noticeable. All right, for this next way to tell between a male and female, I
actually have to go get Bill, hold him up for you. See, see how he's got a nice concave shell where
it dips in a lot in the middle, that's what the male's got. Say, that helps them kind of fit over
the shell the female when they're breeding, and the females they'll have a really completely flat
plastron to the shell. All right, so here's Beth and you can see that she's got a completely flat
shell, it's not concave at all, and that is what the female's have got. Now while I've got her up here, another way to tell is the length
of the tail, and you can see that she's got nice, short tail. Kind of stubby. Right there. She's heavy
actually, she gained weight this summer I think. Say yeah, the females have got fatter, shorter
tails than the males do. See here's Bill again, and his tail is so long that it curves along his body.
Yeah, they have massive long and large tails. Yep. Definitely a big difference between the boys and
girls. Here's another one of our adult red foots, this one's actually younger I think than Bill,
Beth, and Wheel. He's, he or she, is a little smaller. I'm gonna actually try to see if we can sex this
one. All right, so I've got this little dude, it's a dude because you can see he's got that nice
concave shell. Now it's not his concave as Bill's is, trying to kind of show that you see that had
dips in there, nice concave his Bill's is, because Bill is quite older than this guy, probably and he
does have a nice long tail, but he's got all tucked up because he's a little scared right now. All right
guys, so that's it as far as our little guide on how to sex the different types of tortoises we have
here at our store. For other tortoises, there are other ways of sexing them, like looking at the
notch on the bottom of their shell before their tail and everything, but with these three species
that doesn't really apply as much. So we hope you enjoyed watching and we'll see you guys later.