One thing I know is they do not like cold water. In Winter i let the level get low and full of leaves. It warms up faster and the leaves rot and make heat=warmer water. If they can hear the water hit the pool they are more likely to get in. Yep they will get out when you want them in and get in...
I used a Black Mt.Tortoise about a year old with the typical raised growth rings around the outside of the Carapace scutes. Before I wet the area under heat outside, I pulled out a one year old M.e.p for the test. It was very dried out as he was right on the hot spot. I put him in a med. size...
.......Here is Rich's Mt.Tortoise parents. F. Captive born in 1993. It was sold as a baby and lived in N.Calif. The owners gave it back to me in 2008. The Sire seen breeding another female was from my first pair, wild collected in Thailand in 1988. Note the thick group of growth lines between...
How will you keep them in the "chamber" once they become 10, 20, 50, 70+ lbs. Or is it your belief they will not need this method at ? weight/age. I just dont want new mt.tortoise owners or those thinking about it and are investigating what it takes to keep them, to read this forum (and there...
.... I've been looking at babies for over 20+ years and have seen varying degrees of the "raised" growth from slight to extreme, within the same environment. Pictures of them in Nature at young ages have the raised edges around the outside of scute. Some smooth out over a long time but a few...
Sometimes pectoral scutes dont look normal compared to what we see in a few books. It makes no sense to try to put a percentage of each subspecies on them. Pectoral scouts do not hold up 100% of the time. When this happens you must look at all the features, of adults and babies. All the...
Why would you come to this conclusion? The thick group of growth lines mean nothing but that it was a captive animal that never experienced an abrasive substrate. If they are worn down by tortoise substrate friction you get a center line with pectoral scutes extending to the midline. You may be...
...Their PHAYREI...dont worry about it. M.e.e and M.E.phayrei are very closely related. Tortoises from the middle of their range can share some trates. So for 30,000,000 years some animals on the North/South Kline (Thailand and now Burma*) L. McKaskill * per com. will have interbred somewhere...
Can you tell me how much the 27" F phayrei weighs? That could be the biggest one in the USA. Are you going to separate the sub species out, and hold the intergrade single. Thanks Vic
OK gang, I'm waiting to see how you'all do it in the real winter of all the other States that get cold. i would like to pass this information to my customers that get Mt.torts. from me! Thanks and Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone. You guy's are doing a great job of Defying...
Kyle, It works good if you make it just a little higher than the tortoise. They like low tight places to hide and if covered with a tarp it stays nice and toasty. Vic