Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:49 pm Re: Help please
Interesting. They do indeed offer to sell baby male or female sliders.
If you go to Google Scholar, you can input the following search: "gender red eared sliders"
There will be several results. Look at the first result.
While it is just the abstract available (without purchasing the article), it does state that incubation temperatures appear to affect the sex of the hatchling. So they could indeed be accurately predicting and selectively breeding males and females!
Regardless, I sent them an email asking how they identified hatchlings as males or females. Interested to see if I will get a response.
If the incubation temperature is indeed a good indicator, then perhaps that is the only way to know what gender a hatchling is. If nobody knows the gender prior to hatching the baby, that is probably when you need to wait for the 4" to tell their age for sure. Your links are not for hatchlings. They are probably referring to the turtles you buy at the pet shop, that are at least 4". Hatchlings don't yet have the clear, defining features referred to in the articles you linked.
Anywho, that's great to hear that they enjoy basking. Turtles have personalities! My girl is the same, she is generally more shy when compared to the male. But I caught them basking together today, with the female propped up on the male's back, taking in some more heat! Cute.