Brazilian female.

[Anyfoot]

@cdmay. I took loads of photos and I'm disappointed. The photos are of poor quality. I'll take same more tomorrow, trouble is it's freezing here at the moment so I can't use natural light. The flash messed it up.
Anyway, this female has me puzzled, her carapace and plastron is super thick. There are 4 scutes that have pulled to one side. The lady who had her before me had her for about 12 yrs and she was this size when she got her. I've had her for about 18 month now. She just laid 2 clutches of 3 in the past 2 months, first eggs for me from her.
Wish I could find what her history is. I'm guessing wild caught but at some stage was kept under a low intense heat source.
I measured Edna today accurately and she's 12.5" SCL.
Back in the day when they were importing Brazilians to Florida (Miami I believe) was there shipments to the UK too.
Tell me what you are reading from her carapace please. It looks to me that she was caught very young because you can see the carapace is lower just after growth around the areola where captive care kicked in, but still a smooth trend.

 

[cdmay]

First, what an interesting girl!
Second, yes her shell seems unusually thick from the photos.
But otherwise she appears to be OK. The area in the rear where the scutes are messed up is something one will see occasionally...in my opinion it is where the scute borders got 'stuck' somehow during their growth. Instead of growing away from each other at a regulated pace, the areola didn't separate as they normally should and that resulted in a pinched region of the carapace. Even wild caught imports have exhibited this odd trait as I had a juvenile female imported from Colombia when I was about 19 years old (1979) that had the same imperfection on one side of her carapace. The pinched in area resulted in this tortoise having an almost kidney shaped shell. Although her shell remained distorted as she grew, she became a regular and fine breeder.
Have no clue what causes this to happen.
I think you posted photos of this animal some time ago as I remember the stumped/excessively worn feet. Is that right?

All I can say is that you should continue to provide a nice home for her and I would bet that she will live a very long time. I would hazard a guess too...I bet her offspring are really pretty!

 

[Anyfoot]

First, what an interesting girl!
Second, yes her shell seems unusually thick from the photos.
But otherwise she appears to be OK. The area in the rear where the scutes are messed up is something one will see occasionally...in my opinion it is where the scute borders got 'stuck' somehow during their growth. Instead of growing away from each other at a regulated pace, the areola didn't separate as they normally should and that resulted in a pinched region of the carapace. Even wild caught imports have exhibited this odd trait as I had a juvenile female imported from Colombia when I was about 19 years old (1979) that had the same imperfection on one side of her carapace. The pinched in area resulted in this tortoise having an almost kidney shaped shell. Although her shell remained distorted as she grew, she became a regular and fine breeder.
Have no clue what causes this to happen.
I think you posted photos of this animal some time ago as I remember the stumped/excessively worn feet. Is that right?

All I can say is that you should continue to provide a nice home for her and I would bet that she will live a very long time. I would hazard a guess too...I bet her offspring are really pretty!

Interesting about the scute deformaty. I assumed someone had kept her under a heat light drying out that perticular area of the carapace causing it not to grow evenly.

Yeah this is the one with stumped feet. When she digs her nests she urinates to the extent that the nesting site is sloppy mud, I figured this was to help her dig because she has no toenails.
I was shocked she only laid 3 eggs on the 2 occasions she's nested. Am I wrong to assume just because she's a biggish girl she will lay big clutches?
Do you think northerns lay bigger clutches than Brazilians. One of my northerns has layed 5 clutches over the last 6 months, all 9 and 10 batches. I've just had another northern start laying, her first clutch was 6 and 2nd a clutch of 8, these seem high for a first time layer. (probably duds).
This Brazilian looks to me to be very old and mature and only laying 3's.

 

[cdmay]

Other than her feet and shell being excessively worn she doesn't appear particularly 'old' to me at all. She still has nice color about her face and front legs.
I would bet that her appearance comes from the place where she had been kept before she came to you.
As for clutch size it is often just the individuality of the particular female. One of my girls who is over 12 inches never lays more than 5 eggs and usually just 2 or 3.
She did produce a clutch of 5 last night though.
Also, egg production is tied to lipid intake of the female prior to, and after she had been bred. In captivity I believe that our tortoises are getting way more of these fats than their wild counterparts and so clutch size in captive females is probably higher than normal.

 

[Redstrike]

I know you're talking to Carl here, I just wanted to say that's a beautiful tortoise!
I'm especially fond of split scutes (all but one of mine have splits - it was a deliberate decision) and her "stuck" ones make a really unique pattern.

 

[Anyfoot]

I know you're talking to Carl here, I just wanted to say that's a beautiful tortoise!
I'm especially fond of split scutes (all but one of mine have splits - it was a deliberate decision) and her "stuck" ones make a really unique pattern.

Any one can talk here. Carl asked me to post some pictures is why I tagged him. I've just contacted the old owner to see if I can track back any of her history.

 

[Bryan]

Very interesting female! Thanks for posting the pics and for the interesting discussion. Any idea what her diet was like before you got her?

 

[Anyfoot]

Very interesting female! Thanks for posting the pics and for the interesting discussion. Any idea what her diet was like before you got her?

The lady who had her before me had her for about 12yrs, she fed weeds,flowers and fruit, for protein she used to feed all her redfoots species trout pellets . Edna was already this size when she got her though. I'm trying to track down the owner before her who apparently just let her roam free in the garden. Be good if I could track her back to how she got here, probably won't happen but for the sake of a few emails here and there I can try.

 

[Anyfoot]

I'd like to know people's opinions on why wild torts are smoother than captive bred. I don't mean the overall shape, I mean the surface finish of the carapace, why do some of the wild ones have the texture of a bowling ball, if it's wear from abrasion then why is it so uniform on the entire carapace.

 

[Bryan]

I'd like to know people's opinions on why wild torts are smoother than captive bred. I don't mean the overall shape, I mean the surface finish of the carapace, why do some of the wild ones have the texture of a bowling ball, if it's wear from abrasion then why is it so uniform on the entire carapace.

My opinion is that the growth is probably slower in the wild so the growth lines are much smaller which leaves it looking and feeling smoother than some CB animals. .

 

[Redstrike]

My opinion is that the growth is probably slower in the wild so the growth lines are much smaller which leaves it looking and feeling smoother than some CB animals. .

I think this is really logical.