If you are having a hard time telling weather your painter turtle is male or female take a look at its tail and claws.
If it's a female it should have a longer more narrow tail, if it's a male its tail should be thicker, particularely at the base.
As for the claws, while the female sports the longer tail males tend to have longer claws, ideal for mateing purposes.
I'm no expert but I hope that helps!

my turtle took a while to get used to eating certain things that he needed, i figured when he got hungry, he'd eat. now he eats everything from worms, flies, moths, turtle sticks, pellets, plankton/krill to feeder fish and lettuce. its a lot of fun to watch him catch the fish and eat it!

i do have some questions however. my turtles shell is (he's about 1 5/8" long and 1 1/2" wide right now - a baby) starting to peel up at the front, its lifted, like snakes skin when they are starting to shed. just the front two cells behind his head. the bottom on the sides seems to be a bit discolored lately (i noticed it yesterday along with the lifting of the thin piece of shell). I am wondering if maybe he is getting too fat for his shell or something? he eats anything you put in front of him, and he 'begs' for food when he sees you at the tank. what is this, and how do i fix it??? help my little George!

The turtle is a reptile they will moult their shells and also there claws and paws will too
Nothing to worry about just do not attempt to pull them off they will fall off on there own.
Paws and claws will look like stuff hanging off of him its just the old skin ... make sure he has a good basking spot the drying out helps to get the scale off his body.