He is a She!

Since I've been on break, I've been reading tons of forum posts re: RES turtles. Lil Focher has finally exceeded 4 inches (the legal, "adult" size) so we can safely determine his sex. As of 2 nights ago, I was convinced Lil F was still a boy since he has a long, fat tail. The only discrepancy was that his nails weren't long.

Today, I went to Petco...and saw a real 4.75 inch male, who had a really long, fat tail and long nails. I asked the Petco dude, is that a male and the other a female? Yup.

Lil F is a she!!! =O

You can't really determine a turtle's sex until they're at least 4 inches. I don't know why we just assumed she was a he. Maybe b/c s/he was such a little rascal (hence his real name, "Lil Fawker") that we just assumed she was a he. Now, why am I disappointed that she is not a he?

I don't know. Maybe b/c he did a sex change on us. Well, technically she didn't.

OMG, that means she can grow as large as 10-12 inches!!! That's a whole lot of turtle! Since she's been steadily growing since her b-day, I got a new dock for her and moved all the other stuff over to the right, and added a couple more gallons of water to her heart's desire. For the first time, I also bought her cuttlebone for calcium. No big deal, just an interesting experience that I have to get used to. Worse is that I had to buy a can of crickets to dust in another store-bought bottle of calcium powder. I HATE bugs. Last time, we bought a can of worms, I could barely bring myself to feed him/her that stuff. I didn't dare touch the stuff so I was literally using a plastic fork and knife to feed her. Barf. I ended up tossing it after a couple months. Guess what I'm using this time around! A pair of chopsticks and a spoon to coat that mofo well, just so my lil green angel can rip it apart.

I can't say crickets are any more appetizing. The worst part is that it smells like the Green Giant Corn Niblets that I eat! Gross!!

She's such a cutie, though. She made me proud, eating all the weird stuff I fed her today. :)