How old do my turtle have to be before I can tell what sex they are? They will be one year old in June but already I have one larger then the other(granted she eats more) and the from nails I think look a little different. Any thoughts. I can't tell by holding them upside down.

You may have posted it else where, but what breed of turtles are they?

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Sorry, they are Painted Turtles!

when I bought my painted turtles, i was told that they reach sexual maturity at age 2, and that we could tell then.
ours are about one and half years old, but i'm pretty sure I already know what sexes they are.
usually, i think, please correct me if I'm wrong, but with males the front claws are usually very long.
there is also a way you can tell by looking at the bottom of the shell and the tail, but I get confused on what is what, so hopefully someone can help you with that.

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<3 Tessa

0.0.2 painted turtles (Mo and Squirt)
1.0.0 yellow bellied slider (Jebidiah)
0.1.0 Amelanistic corn snake (Rose)
1.0.0 Hog Island/Colombian Boa (Kah)
0.2.0 Colombian Boa (Jasmine) and her baby(no name yet)
1.0.0 Suriname Boa (Kayne)
0.2.0 Cats (Lilly and Reese)

i know for red eared sliders the males have the long claws but i'm not sure about painted. it might be the same.

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yes i am a she ^_^

~My Babies~

1 Rosy Boa (male) Chaos
1 Snow Corn (male) Blizzard
1 Anertherystic Corn (male) Bullet
1 Senegal Parrot (male) Shadow
2 dogs (male) Spot and Bear

Here is a link to a page I just found that will help you.

Differentiating Male and Female Chrysemys picta (Painted Turtle) - Darrell Senneke

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<3 Tessa

0.0.2 painted turtles (Mo and Squirt)
1.0.0 yellow bellied slider (Jebidiah)
0.1.0 Amelanistic corn snake (Rose)
1.0.0 Hog Island/Colombian Boa (Kah)
0.2.0 Colombian Boa (Jasmine) and her baby(no name yet)
1.0.0 Suriname Boa (Kayne)
0.2.0 Cats (Lilly and Reese)

Tessa,
Thanks for the link. I now know that I have a male and a female even though they are not even a year old yet. My problem is in RI having painted in captivity is really not allowed accept for education. I did have Mona(male) she was saved as a baby last year by the PE teacher and he brought her to me the science teacher. Mona and I retired together and I got her a friend online. Little did I know I was getting the opposite sex for him. Lucky me. My problem is now what do I do once they lay eggs and I have babies to deal with???

I have eastern painteds.
From an early age I knew the younger was a male because his front nails were just really long. It was obvious. Now they are 5 and 4 years old and the female is twice the size of the male.
ANd I now know for sure because I witnessed them mating.
So.. I am now here to post about that.