Successful breeding of Cuora (Pyxidea) mouhotii

jonathan gray

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003.JPG !!newturt2.jpg !!newturt4.jpg 010.JPG Here are a few more pictures; the first is of the three year old, first one to hatch here (1 hatch out of 6 eggs). The second is of the father, the third is of 'Big Mama' -the largest of the adults, she laid her first clutch 10/17. She managed to crush two, the remainder are due to hatch next month. The last photo is the mother of the three yr old, as well as the five new hatchlings. Notice how the aggressive male managed to chew off her nuchal scute during an unsupervised session 'love-making'.
 

KevinGG

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View attachment 227057 View attachment 227058 View attachment 227059 View attachment 227060 Here are a few more pictures; the first is of the three year old, first one to hatch here (1 hatch out of 6 eggs). The second is of the father, the third is of 'Big Mama' -the largest of the adults, she laid her first clutch 10/17. She managed to crush two, the remainder are due to hatch next month. The last photo is the mother of the three yr old, as well as the five new hatchlings. Notice how the aggressive male managed to chew off her nuchal scute during an unsupervised session 'love-making'.

So beautiful. If you ever do decide to sell some hatchlings, send me a PM.
 

cdmay

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All great stuff!
On a related note, in the Florida panhandle it is rare to find adult gulf coast box turtles that DON’T have their front marginal scutes chewed up. Males have chewed up scutes from fighting other males, and females from being ‘courted’ by males. What’s astonishing to me is that these box turtles possess the jaw strength to do such damage.
 

jonathan gray

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These guys never fail to amaze me (which is one of the many reasons I enjoy them so much). They will grab a land snail as big as their heads in their jaws, manipulate it into the correct position the CHOMP, shatter the shell with one bite to get to the meat inside. Reminds me of how my macaw tackles walnuts. When I allow the male to have his conjugal visits, I make sure the females forequarters are firmly wedged in a corner of the pen so her head and neck have some degree of protection.
 

jonathan gray

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Wow! Sell me some:)))! So nice to see when people get these guys settled. They seem to be reliable producers once they get acclimated and care is adjusted. Great job!
Kevin, maybe some day I will be able to, but for right now I am only interested in building up my breeding stock and trading babies to introduce new blood into the lines.
 

Mouhotiifan

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Jonathan:

Do you have plastron pictures of the adults that produced these? Aside from some facial markings, plastron patterning is key in identifying the ssp with C. mouhotii. Before I make an effort to identify them, this would be helpful, although I have my suspicions. Here is a link to a couple papers which may be of use. I keep both.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...aphical_distribution_and_phenotypic_variation

http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Accounts/crm_5_099_mouhotii_v1_2016.pdf
 
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jonathan gray

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I will post the plastron pictures you requested; in the meantime I am happy to report the second clutch of began to hatch last evening. So far, one baby is out...two more eggs to go. Pictures (of course!) to follow.
 

jonathan gray

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This is the second clutch, laid this year by a different female (her first clutch here). She deposited six eggs, crushed two, one went really bad , and now the remaining eggs are beginning to hatch. Not too optimistic about the other two eggs, but then, I wasn't too optimistic about this whole clutch. The female is HUGE; I thought she was too big for my male.27858541_10212973967318613_7874341393832732956_n.jpg
 

KevinGG

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Incredible. So glad you are dialing in nesting with this species. Amazing to see that very rare turtles can actually become quite prolific if kept in the correct environment for long enough. Great job.
 

jonathan gray

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Kevin, it was a lot of trial and error at first. Getting them to survive the acclimation process was the first hurdle, then tempting them to eat was the second. The first food they actually took with anything resembling relish was pineapple (!). I am just so grateful to be able to be part of this 'process': After three years of near hits, I think I finally discovered what works and what doesn't. I NEVER imagined I'd have six hatchling to raise at one time...it's like six Christmases rolled into one!
 

jonathan gray

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Mouhotiifan, here are the pictures you requested. The first photos are of the smaller of the two females (and also the best producer). It was her clutch of five which hatched here at the end of December. You will notice her nuchal scute area is pretty chewed up from my over-zealous male. Conjugal visits are now heavily supervised. The second photos are of the larger of the two females. This year was her first to nest with me; she deposited six eggs, crushed two, one went bad pretty quickly, one just hatched on 11 Feb 2018, and two others are still incubating. The next photos are of the male. All were WC and have been with me for four years. The second set of photos is a comparison of two hatchlings from the different clutches. I'm astounded to see how much the first babies have grown since they hatched 23 -27 Dec 2017. Even though I have had these animals for four years, they retain their shyness and even their distrust of me. They will eat while I watch them, but only if I don't move. They will withdraw when I pick them up but usually come out kicking shortly thereafter. I used to have a bunch of these turtles 20 or so years ago and they were very different than the ones I have now. For one thing, they were not at all shy, not even from Day !. As soon as I entered the room, they were pacing the glass looking for something to eat. They also seemed to have more red to their carapaces, more of a russet-mahogany color than the ones I have now. And they were much more active, almost always on the move looking for food or love. The ones I have now are quite sedentary...interesting but sedentary.015.JPG 016.JPG 022.JPG 024.JPG 027.JPG 028.JPG 031.JPG
 
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Mouhotiifan

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Looks like they are obsti. Beautiful. Watch the plastron of the female near the hinge (top right in photo), looks like she may have some rot developing. Pretty common with them.
 

jonathan gray

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I took this picture this morning. The baby on the left hatched on February 11, the baby and the right hatched on December 25. What a difference 48 days makes!002a.jpg
 

Markw84

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That has been an ongoing issue with her. I've been treating it with Betadine.

Just a thought for you...

I have found that betadine is best used once to try to really kill the infection after you have cleaned out any active rot best as possible. Any subsequent treatments of betadine actually will also damage the good tissue and retards healing. I get best results with an initial treatment of betadine, then keeping a good anti-fungal on after that. I like vet quality silver sulfadiazine cream, but have also had good luck with plain old athlete's foot cream.

Love the turtles and really appreciate your success and dedication to these turtles. Thanks for sharing.
 

jonathan gray

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Just a thought for you...

I have found that betadine is best used once to try to really kill the infection after you have cleaned out any active rot best as possible. Any subsequent treatments of betadine actually will also damage the good tissue and retards healing. I get best results with an initial treatment of betadine, then keeping a good anti-fungal on after that. I like vet quality silver sulfadiazine cream, but have also had good luck with plain old athlete's foot cream.

Love the turtles and really appreciate your success and dedication to these turtles. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mark, I wasn't aware of that.
 
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