Boris

[Anyfoot]

Can you remember this little guy @Redfoot NERD. Hatched out 16th MAY 2016. S/he had dark seems down the centre of the plastron leaving me thinking my 'immature Brazilian male' may have been involved. I don't think so now.
Look at the back toenails, They are white, has anyone seen this before?


Fast forward 6 months. Turns out those dark plastron seems must have just been part of the natural heeling process(bruising maybe), still got white toenails on the back feet.


And how s/he is today, what do you think?

 

[cyclopunx]

S/he is pretty!

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Looks fantastic ... where did you learn how to raise them?

@Anyfoot with as humid as you keep them.. I'm amazed there is no plastron fungus going on.

EVERYBODY -- When Craig tells you how he keeps his.. listen and heed!!!

btw.. they are considered to be male gender until able to tell otherwise.. not s/he [ or is that some kind of reptile community term or something? ]

 

[Anyfoot]

S/he is pretty!

Thank you, I'll try and take a better photo tomorrow in natural day light.

 

[Anyfoot]

Looks fantastic ... where did you learn how to raise them?

@Anyfoot with as humid as you keep them.. I'm amazed there is no plastron fungus going on.

EVERYBODY -- When Craig tells you how he keeps his.. listen and heed!!!

btw.. they are considered to be male gender until able to tell otherwise.. not s/he [ or is that some kind of reptile community term or something? ]

.
Lol. He, it is from now on.
Terry, I've never understood this shell rot thing, I never got it with the 3 juveniles I raised on damp coir in a closed vivarium. Same with this guy and the others. I may have to deal with shell rot one day but I'll carry on doing what I'm doing until I do.
The only thing I can think of is this.....

Coir doesn't mould in wet conditions, even cyprus mulch and orchid bark moulds if it's super wet and lacks air flow. I'm coming to the conclusion that for a Tortoise to get shell rot it has to be sat on something that encourages it, for example, sodden bark will start to decay and rot, showing signs of fungus/bacteria, if a tort is sat on that, the growing fungus/bacteria passes to the plastron. In my short experience, this just does not happen with coir.
I've mentioned it before, why could one of my hingebacks sit in water 22hrs a day and not get shell rot, but yet the others sat on sodden cyprus mulch and leaves did. Has to be the decaying mulch/leaves passing fungus/bacteria to the plastron and eating into it.

 

[Anyfoot]

Look Terry, they dig in past the moss and orchid bark to get to the moist coir. That's Boris on the right, well in the coir.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

@Anyfoot .. that was why I asked - you are defying all odds.. but it works for you so don't fix it!!!

A great number over the years have asked what to do about the fungus/rot that has started using coir as a substrate. When I suggest cypress I usually don't hear from again until a couple months later and they tell me it has cleared up. Two of the Bolivian youngsters have a "dry" look to them.. and they are on cypress - AND I've found that under their big plastic food lid it is a little moldy in spots where it is really wet.. where there is no air circulation! - otherwise the cypress is dry.

Craig you must have good air circulation going on...

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Look Terry, they dig in past the moss and orchid bark to get to the moist coir. That's Boris on the right, well in the coir.
View attachment 193114

they like getting in/under that moss to keep their carapace moist - the main reason their carapace grows soooo smooth!!!

Craig I hope some of them are hearing this and quit scorching them under heat/basking lights!

 

[Anyfoot]

they like getting in/under that moss to keep their carapace moist - the main reason their carapace grows soooo smooth!!!

Craig I hope some of them are hearing this and quit scorching them under heat/basking lights!

In the enclosure that all my hatchlings are in now, the closest heat source(a heat panel) is about 5ft away from the tortoises. The last 4 I had hatch out went straight into this enclosure, so I'm curious to see what happens. All hatchlings prior to these last 4 just had a CHE for heat source, however this heat source had a shield under it so the heat from the CHE could not directly dry out the carapace, you would think even in the wild the scorching hot sun would dry out the carapace of a hatchling when it's at its most vulnerable because it's still soft. They must hide in the undergrowth for long periods, probably with dew and rain getting to the built in shield(carapace).
As for my latest enclosure there is good drainage, a layer of rocks, then soil, then coir, all going through a mesh bottom
In my old vivarium the coir was about 3" deep. The bottom 1" was super wet but the top 2" just moist. I think depth of substrate is very important, if I had had only 1" depth of coir in the vivarium, it would have been too sodden I think, probably would have started of shell rot because they would have been sat on stagnant water and coir.

 

[Redstrike]

Neat looking little redfoot!

 

[Anyfoot]

Neat looking little redfoot!

Thank you Mr redstrike. I look forward to the day you start with hatchlings, sure to be some corker coloring.
I'm sure I read the other day you were talking about a 5th Tortoise for your herd.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

@Anyfoot - you got it!

Putting that coconut-shell coir about 2" or less deep [ directly on bottom of enclosure ] WILL create a swamp easily when someone thinks they can raise the humidity from the bottom up. Ya gotta put a lid on it - like you do with the moss - to trap the humidity in.. which is why your's are growing so smooth!!!

 

[Big Ol Tortoise]

Looks fantastic ... where did you learn how to raise them?

@Anyfoot with as humid as you keep them.. I'm amazed there is no plastron fungus going on.

EVERYBODY -- When Craig tells you how he keeps his.. listen and heed!!!

btw.. they are considered to be male gender until able to tell otherwise.. not s/he [ or is that some kind of reptile community term or something? ]

I see lots of people use S/he. Probably because they don't know what sex it is yet. but he from now on lol

 

[Redstrike]

Thank you Mr redstrike. I look forward to the day you start with hatchlings, sure to be some corker coloring.
I'm sure I read the other day you were talking about a 5th Tortoise for your herd.

Haha, we'll see what I wind up having M:F wise. If I have 4 ladies and I ever find the means to invest in my own property, I'd buy a male. So... it's probably going to be a while.