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How can you tell from a male to a femle turtle and how do you take care of turtles?

Olivia Harrell asked:

Hi. I have two turtles and I have a problem telling them if they are girls or boys or both. Also, I feed them turtle food and they won’t eat it at all. How canyou tell from a male to a female turtle and what food do they like to eat? Can someone help me out? If so thanks.

Comments (7) Posted in Reptiles

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7 Responses to 'How can you tell from a male to a femle turtle and how do you take care of turtles?'

Cat Girl - February 9th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Well, usually (in most cases) the male has a visible tail and the female does not.
Brandon A - February 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Ok first of all…. no turtle food. I always use lettuce. And the difference between boys and girls have to do with the design of their shells i think, i’m not sure tho
mike b - February 12th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
look for ******* on it
David - February 14th, 2010 at 5:36 am
You have to wait until they are at least 3 years old to really tell. Then it still depends on what kind of turtle you’re talking about. If you’re talking about a Red Eared Slider: females are physically larger and have a smaller tail. Males have longer, thicker tails and longer front claws with the cloaca closer to the tip of the tail.
crazylaura_99 - February 15th, 2010 at 10:57 am
the male turtle has long claws and long tail, and the female has a short tail and they lay eggs. u need a basking spot for y our turtle’s to get UV light to kill germs from their shells, what kind of turtle’s do u have? give them lettuce or worms or fish, crickets
amsley - February 18th, 2010 at 12:34 am
females have a straight bottom carapace (shell). males are concave (curved) in order to climb on the female for mating

feeding depends on what kind of turtle you have. go to for good caresheets
Madkins007 - February 20th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Sexing a small turtle is just plain not possible. When they hit about 4″ you can know for sure one way or the other, but not as babies.

The main characteristics of a male Red-ear will be:
- Smaller (9″ max length)
- Somewhat more colorful
- Longer foreclaws
- Longer tail, with the vent near the middle
- In-curved belly

Females will be:
- Larger (up to 12″) and generally duller in color
- Foreclaws the same size as rear claws
- Stubbier tail with the vent near the base
- Flat or slighly bulging belly

Food for a Red-ear Slider will change as it gets older. Babies eat almost all meats and as the turtle gets past reproduction age, and gets bigger and slower, it adds more and more plants to the diet.

A good young Red-ear diet would be:
- About 1/2 good turtle pellets. Get the good stuff, not the cheapo garbage.
- The other half would be meats like cooked chicken or beef heart, or live (or frozen/thawed) ‘fish foods’ like worms, shrimp, krill, small fish, insects, etc. Just remember to keep the food in relation to the size of the turtle’s mouth!

Young turtles get fed every day, an amount of food about the size of their head or so. Remove uneaten food after about 30-60 minutes to help keep the tank clean.

As the turtle gets older, change the diet this way:
- Fewer, larger feedings. At about 1 year, go to every otehr day. At about 3 years, go to every 3 days.
- Add dark leafy greens (dandelion, turnip greens, escarole lettuce, endive lettuce), chopped yellow-orange veggies, and/or water plants. This should never be more than 1/2 of the diet.

Turtles don’t eat when they are not happy. A turtle needs 3 basics to be happy:

1. Good water. A big, clean, warm pond to swim, hunt, hide, explore, and exercise in. Aim for 10 gallons fo water per inch of shell length, warmed to about 75-80F.

2. Good sunlight. Turtles worship the sun. They need a good basking site where they can get out and stretch out under a warm light (about 90F). UVB rays really help as well.

3. Good food, as described above.

You can learn more at or