- Joined
- Jun 23, 2017
- Messages
- 248
Hourly we can watch get grow too [emoji1]I'm so glad he went to someone on here, my 3 year old daughter loves looking at pictures of him, she calls him "the special baby tortoise"
Hourly we can watch get grow too [emoji1]I'm so glad he went to someone on here, my 3 year old daughter loves looking at pictures of him, she calls him "the special baby tortoise"
I guess if you're alive you don't have to be perfect. You can be unique. I have a brother like that.There were a total of 9 additional hatchlings that my mother-in-law found in her yard about a month after my eggs hatched. When she rinsed them off it confirmed what I had seen from the first picture in the yard, a baby with a very interesting pattern of aberrant scutes...
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I was immediately concerned that he would start growing in an unusual way, one that might harm him eventually because the first pic looked like he had no center dividing scute growth line and would eventually just grow longer, but not expand wider, which would be devastating and eventually fatal for the little tortoise. But upon seeing him cleaned off a bit, and later holding him in person, it was evident that he had a distinct central "line" from which the shell would eventually expand from. I find in completely fascinating that he has no central or "vertebral" scutes. The front and rear scutes are also very unique. He also has never completely puffed out or unfolded on the underside. His underside still looks that way. He is also a much more rounded shape in comparison to normal sulcatas which are more oblong in shape. You can see this in the comparison shot with him and his siblings above.
Here is a picture of him outside...
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And then here he is just chilling in my hands, looks at those legs astretchin! Haha!
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This little guy has the coolest personality, he loves warm water soaks and literally lifts his head pointing straight up when you drip warm water on his little head. Such a cool little lifeform.
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Here are some more close-up shots of him soaking in his daily warm water bath so you can see the uniqueness of this little one...
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I'd be interested to hear what everyone who stumbles across this thread thinks of this little cute anomaly. I wish I could see what he is going to look like as a full grown adult sulcata!
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