Is My Red Eared Slider Male or Female? (Guide with Pictures)

If you own a pet red eared slider, at some point, you will want to know if it’s a boy or a girl. But in most cases, this is easier said than done, unless you have a well-structured guide with pictures that will tell you what is the best way to find out the gender of your turtle, like this guide right here.

The best way to determine the gender of a red eared slider is by looking at the length of its claws, the shape of the shell, the length of the tail, the position of the cloaca, and the shape of the snout. All of those characteristics are different in male and female turtles.

Those differences are usually quite subtle, but if you look closely at your turtle, and compare it with the pictures in the article you will definitely notice them. So let’s start with one of the easiest-to-spot differences, the length of the claws.

The Length of the Claws

The first thing that you should look at in order to figure out if your turtle is male or female are the claws. And this is because males have visibly longer laws than females.

Here are two pictures, the first one showing the claws of a female turtle, and the second the claws of a male turtle.

There are two main reasons why male turtles have longer claws than females.

The first one is to help the male turtle have a better grip on the female’s shell when they are mating. And the second one is to help attract females in the first place, as during the mating ritual a lot of turtles use their claws to make some specific sounds to attract females.

The Shape of the Shell

The next thing that you should check is the shape of the shell, more exactly the shape of the plastron, as males have a concave (curved in) plastron, while the females have a flat plastron.

Photos by braindamaged217 on Flickr

The reason for this difference is also related to mating behavior, as the male needs to get on top of the female, and they need to maintain some balance.

In this picture, you can see multiple red eared sliders. But the second one from the left and the last one from the right have a more concave shape than the rest. I know this kind of thing is can be a little hard to tell from a photo but in reality, is really easy to tell.

Length and Shape of the Tail

Females have shorter and thicker tails, while males have longer and skinnier tails. 

Female Red-Eared Slider. Photo by birder125 on Flickr 

Male Red-Eared Slider. Photo by Jon Sullivan on Flickr

This is usually a very good way to tell if a turtle is male or female, but there is one thing that can easily mislead you, and that thing is a nipped tail, which is very common among pet turtles, more than in wild turtles.

Small pet turtles are usually kept together in very tight spaces, and some of them will occasionally mistake the tail of another turtle for something that they can eat, so they will bite it. And as a result that turtle will grow up having a smaller tail than it would have otherwise.

This can also happen in the wild, but it happens rarely since turtles don’t spend that much time near other turtles, and they have a lot more space.

So make sure to take a closer look at that tail and see if it looks whole, otherwise, you could mix up the gender of your turtle.

The Position of the Cloaca

The cloaca is the posterior orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive and urinary tract, and it can be really helpful in figuring out if a turtle is male or female, even if all cloacas look the same.

Females have their cloaca positioned near the base of their tail, while males have it closer to the middle of the end of the tail.

Turtles use the cloaca for a lot of things, they use it when they lay the eggs, they use it when they fertilize the eggs, they use it to breathe underwater, and a lot more. If you want to know more about the cloaca you should check out this article: Do Turtles Have Gills?

Size of the Red Eared Slider

In most cases, female red eared sliders will get considerably bigger than males. On average a female will reach sizes between 12 and 14 inches (30 and 35 centimeters), while males usually reach sizes between 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 centimeters).

Photo by D.Fletcher on Flickr

This method works at its best if you want to compare two turtles that you know that they are about the same age. If two turtles were born at about the same time and one is considerably bigger than the other then the bigger one is the female.

Another way you can use this method is the following: If you own or find a red eared slider turtle, you can measure it, if the shell is bigger than 10 inches (25 centimeters) then you can definitely say it’s a female, if that is not the case then it’s a male.

Color of the Red Eared Slider

During the majority of their lives, both male and female eared sliders turtles have almost the same color tones, but once they start reaching the last years of their life their colors will gradually start to darken. This is especially noticeable in males.

Photos by braindamaged217 on Flickr

This method is only useful on old turtles, so if you want to identify the gender of a young red eared slider, this might not be the best option.

What Is the Difference When It Comes to Taking Care of a Male or a Female Red Eared Slider

There aren’t any major differences, just a couple of small ones. The first one is that a female turtle will lay eggs while a male turtle won’t. Even if there is no male around a female will still lay eggs, the only difference is that those eggs won’t be fertilized.

Taking care of a female turtle that is about to lay eggs is not very hard, you barely have to do anything, so don’t worry about this part. But if you are curious about what you have to do when your turtle is pregnant you can read this article: How to Tell if Your Turtle Is Pregnant.

And the female turtle will eat a little more since she is bigger but not by a noticeable amount so don’t worry about that.

In the end, I would say that it’s probably a little easier to have a male turtle because they won’t get pregnant, but in the rest, there is no difference between them for you as a turtle owner.

Related Questions

How long can a turtle stay underwater? It depends on the turtle, most sea turtles will be able to go for at least 5 hours without breathing, most aquatic turtles should be able to stay underwater for at least 20-30 minutes, land turtles on the other hand are not very good at staying underwater so 1 minute is the average you can expect them to be able to stay underwater. Here is a list of average times a turtle can spend underwater:

• Box turtle – 1 – 2 minutes
• Desert tortoise – 1 – 2 minutes
• Snapping turtle – 20 – 30 minutes
• Red-eared slider – 20 – 30 minutes
• Map turtle – 20 – 30 minutes
• Green sea turtle – 7 – 10 hours
• Leatherback sea turtle – 7 – 10 hours
• Kemp’s ridley – 7 – 10 hours
• Olive ridley – 7 – 10 hours

How long can Red Eared sliders live? As pets, red eared sliders can live anywhere from 30 years to 50 years. In the wild, they usually live for 25 to 30 years. The difference is so big because there are a lot of predators and other dangerous things in the wild that will end up hurting the turtle, thus reducing their lifespan.

Can Red Eared sliders sleep underwater? Yes, red eared sliders can sleep underwater. They actually prefer to sleep underwater. When they sleep their metabolic rate will go down, so they will be able to spend a lot more time underwater than they normally would.

How much water should be in a red eared slider turtle tank? The general rule of thumb is that there should be at least 10 gallons of water, per inch of shell. So if your turtle has 4 inches of shell in length, then there should be at least 40 gallons of water. If your turtle has 6 inches then there should be 60 gallons of water.

Hello,

If you enjoy the content that we create, please consider saying a "Thank You!" by leaving a tip.

Every little bit can help us tremendously in continuing to create quality content that helps turtle and tortoise owners around the world.

We really appreciate the kindness and support that you show us!