Turtle mommy, hope you see this.....

[Mmathis]

@moby My friend things "yellow bellied slider" just from looking at the pics, but will do more research to confirm. She was quite complementary about the turtle's condition!

 

[Mmathis]

@moby Oh and to add to what @Marshall said, my friend also commented that "he" looks like a "she." I forgot to add that to my note. So, what is the turtle's name, and is it too late to change it to a gender specific name? LOL, none of my turtles has a gender specific name.....

 

[moby]

Well, after 53 years of being called 'Gnasher', if he is indeed a she, I'm afraid it's too late to change its name now as it will go into meltdown and suffer a personality complex! Between the two of us we had Eeny, Meeny, Miney & Mo who were named after a children's nursery game, plus Gnasher who was named after a vicious looking dog that belonged to Dennis the Menace in a comic we read as kids! 'It' does have quite a sharp bite as confirmed by my sister on a couple of occasions!

 

[Mmathis]

@moby I thought Dennis's dog was named Ruff....... Or do I have my comics confused.

 

[moby]

Ruff was the US version apparently, Gnasher and Dennis looked like this in our Beano comic here in the UK.....

 

[Marshall]

@moby Oh and to add to what @Marshall said, my friend also commented that "he" looks like a "she." I forgot to add that to my note. So, what is the turtle's name, and is it too late to change it to a gender specific name? LOL, none of my turtles has a gender specific name.....

I'm sure he/she is secure enough in their sexuality that a gender opposite name is just an incidental anomaly lol

 

[Marshall]

Thanks for the further replies.
@Marshall. Thanks for the YBS confirmation. The brown shelled one is long since dead along with the other three as mentioned above so sadly the question should say 'did' his ridges point backwards! The answer is, yes, as far as I can recall, and the serrations were around his back end like I said.
We kept them in an indoor aquarium with a light bulb for warmth, they all used to pile up on top of the rocks, the bottom one would decide to go for a swim....and the rest just had to follow as the pile of five collapsed! No one told us of the salmonella dangers either, but we all survived
It's plastron is only slightly concave...but the reason my sister has always thought it to be a male is the long claws. Maybe this could be due to it living in a preformed pool with no access to rocks that would naturally wear its claws down. Does the thickness or length of the tail tell us anything please? The baby one you show is marginally larger than when we bought the five of them 53 years ago. My sister says her son is going to inherit it...however, he doesn't seem amused at that prospect. Thanks for looking in, it's appreciated.

With a turtle this old & large a lot of the gender markers become less reliable as the tail, claws etc begin to average out in size in both male and female. The best way to tell though is by the shape of the plastron as mentioned because the concave shape of males is designed to fit together with the slightly angled carapace of the females and this trait will never fade with age as these fellas can mate and reproduce almost their entire life no matter how old they get.

 

[DrCase]

Congrats on keeping him for 53 years

 

[Marshall]

Thanks for the further replies.
@Marshall. Thanks for the YBS confirmation. The brown shelled one is long since dead along with the other three as mentioned above so sadly the question should say 'did' his ridges point backwards! The answer is, yes, as far as I can recall, and the serrations were around his back end like I said.
We kept them in an indoor aquarium with a light bulb for warmth, they all used to pile up on top of the rocks, the bottom one would decide to go for a swim....and the rest just had to follow as the pile of five collapsed! No one told us of the salmonella dangers either, but we all survived
It's plastron is only slightly concave...but the reason my sister has always thought it to be a male is the long claws. Maybe this could be due to it living in a preformed pool with no access to rocks that would naturally wear its claws down. Does the thickness or length of the tail tell us anything please? The baby one you show is marginally larger than when we bought the five of them 53 years ago. My sister says her son is going to inherit it...however, he doesn't seem amused at that prospect. Thanks for looking in, it's appreciated.

Could be worse like my case because I am beginning to think that my favorite turtle Atlas (pictured below) inherited me as in "owning me" lol

 

[moby]

@Marshall and others, thanks for your continued replies! May I ask something else please? You asked about the direction the brown ones ridges pointed along its back and shell edge, does the reply I gave bear any further significance on that ones ID.....despite it being long gone, but just for curiosities sake!?
Thanks. BTW, Atlas looks to be one very happy chappy!

 

[Mmathis]

@Marshall At least some things don't change with box turtles.....don't know enough about the semi-aquatics, are there similar characteristics?

You know you have a girl when you see this.....

You know you have a boy when you see this...... (And it will scare the s**t out of you first time you witness it!!!)

And then there's this.....

 

[HARO]

First Bumblebee porn, now tortoise porn........ what's this forum coming to???
John