Breeding High Yellow Radiates

Radmaster

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Hi everyone I just want to share my radiates with you all, hoping to be a breeder someday, at the moment I have 1 high yellow, 1 extreme high yellow, 2 semi high yellow and 3 better than normal color Radiates. I just want to hear from experienced breeders if high yellow parents can produce high yellow offspring? Is there such thing as selective breeding in this species? These guys are only 1-2 years old they wont be breeding until another 6-8 years but I just want to prepare myself if I should keep the medium yellow ones or perhaps I should sell them and but the higher yellows? These are my high yellow Rads, what do you think? do you think they can produce high yellow babies through selective breeding?

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zovick

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Hello Radmaster,

As one who has been breeding Radiated Tortoises since 1972, I can tell you from personal experience that temperature sex determination (TSD) is not as reliable in Radiated Tortoises as it is in some of the other species. Incubating eggs at 89-90F will generally produce more females than males and using temperatures of 84-85F will usually produce more males than females. I have never paid any attention to the humidity in my incubators when incubating Radiated Tortoise eggs, so cannot speak to that part of your question.

Good luck with your plans,

Bill Zovickian
 

keepergale

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Does your tortoise in the middle photo have a all yellow head?
 

Radmaster

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Hello Radmaster,

As one who has been breeding Radiated Tortoises since 1972, I can tell you from personal experience that temperature sex determination (TSD) is not as reliable in Radiated Tortoises as it is in some of the other species. Incubating eggs at 89-90F will generally produce more females than males and using temperatures of 84-85F will usually produce more males than females. I have never paid any attention to the humidity in my incubators when incubating Radiated Tortoise eggs, so cannot speak to that part of your question.

Good luck with your plans,

Bill Zovickian
Thanks Bill for the insight, do u have any high yellow Radiates in your colony?, if u do does the high yellow bloodline get passed down to it's offspring producing more high yellow babies? Or does the high yellow gene just a myth?
 

zovick

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I held back a couple of these youngsters which were hatched in the early to mid-2000's from the best producing pair of adults I have known in 40+ years of breeding the species. They are just now getting to breeding size and age. An adult photo of one of these babies is also shown. He is now 16" and weighs 30 lb. and he has been breeding with several females this season. Hopefully in 6-9 months, I may have a good answer for your question.

Bill Zovickian

RADIATED TORTOISES State of the Art.JPG #987 Top.jpg
 

Gillian M

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Welcome to to forum!

Love the colours of your torts. Please separate them so as to avoid....bullying. And soak your torts in warm water. If you live in a place where the climate is dry, then you might have to soak the twice a day.;)
 

deadheadvet

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Gillian, not sure who you are directing your comment to. If it is to Bill, he has been breeding Radiated Tortoises in the US longer than anyone I know.
I think he knows a thing or two about raising tortoises. You might learn something from his insight. A lot of the care sheets that float around the web in regard to Radiated Tortoises were created by Bill. I still have mine in my binder where I keep all of my paperwork on my Rads. By the way Bill , great Pic of 987.
 

zovick

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Thank you for your kind words, Evan. I am not sure whether Gillian's comments were directed at me or at the Radmaster, though my tortoises were shown in much closer quarters than were his, so maybe I was indeed the intended recipient.

Just in case that thought is correct, though, it should be indicated that the young tortoises pictured were placed in the tub solely for the purpose of taking the photo. That does not indicate the way that I maintain them when not taking photos. And I know how and when to soak my tortoises. The tubs serve double duty for soaking and photo ops.
 

Radmaster

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I held back a couple of these youngsters which were hatched in the early to mid-2000's from the best producing pair of adults I have known in 40+ years of breeding the species. They are just now getting to breeding size and age. An adult photo of one of these babies is also shown. He is now 16" and weighs 30 lb. and he has been breeding with several females this season. Hopefully in 6-9 months, I may have a good answer for your question.

Bill Zovickian

View attachment 177003 View attachment 177004
First of all I must congratulate and really admire you for your passion and commitment to these animals, and your Radiated torts collection are out of this world! I am very excited for you to see how their offspring turn out to be. How much do u think your high yellow baby Rad. will go for in the market in your country? Also were these high yellow baby's parents normal colored and are they still breeding for u?
 

zovick

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Call me superstitious if you will, but I do not speculate on how much any baby tortoise might be worth before it is hatched and I am able to see it and evaluate it. Here are a couple of my other s who are reaching breeding age right now.

Bill Zovickian
HYP 1.jpg

Two Years Later, they looked like this:
HYP 2014.jpg
 

Radmaster

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Call me superstitious if you will, but I do not speculate on how much any baby tortoise might be worth before it is hatched and I am able to see it and evaluate it. Here are a couple of my other s who are reaching breeding age right now.

Bill Zovickian
View attachment 177080

Two Years Later, they looked like this:
View attachment 177081
The one on the right in the 1st picture is just ridiculous....Perfect in every way!

What do you think this guy will end up looking like when he is matured? and how much does he worth at the tender age of 1 and a half 3 inches, cuz i think i might be paying a bit too much for him?

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zovick

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The one on the right in the 1st picture is just ridiculous....Perfect in every way!

What do you think this guy will end up looking like when he is matured? and how much does he worth at the tender age of 1 and a half 3 inches, cuz i think i might be paying a bit too much for him?

I would venture to say that tortoise will be a pretty nice looking adult, even with the foot injury. In the US, for the size, coloration, and age it is now, the price could range from $3500 to $4500 depending upon how badly the buyer wanted to own it.

Bill Zovickian
 

Radmaster

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I would venture to say that tortoise will be a pretty nice looking adult, even with the foot injury. In the US, for the size, coloration, and age it is now, the price could range from $3500 to $4500 depending upon how badly the buyer wanted to own it.

Bill Zovickian

Thank you Bill for the insight, u have been very informative and thank you for sharing those lovely pictures, really looking forward to see how your new generation of babies will look like, Best of luck my friend!

Warren
 

Radmaster

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Hi There Bill Zovickian, I was wondering if you have any updates regarding your high yellow breeding project. My prize male recently reached 24 cm plastron length and 30 cm shell length, Will he be able to mate soon?
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zovick

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The tortoise in the photo doesn't look as large as you mentioned. Are you measuring over the curve of the carapace or SCL?
If that is an older photo and the tortoise is now 30 cm SCL, the tortoise could possibly mate now, but would be much more successful at 35 to 40 cm SCL
 

Radmaster

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The tortoise in the photo doesn't look as large as you mentioned. Are you measuring over the curve of the carapace or SCL?
If that is an older photo and the tortoise is now 30 cm SCL, the tortoise could possibly mate now, but would be much more successful at 35 to 40 cm SCL
Yes it the straight carapace length, have your high yellow breeding group made any progress yet?
 

zovick

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Yes it the straight carapace length, have your high yellow breeding group made any progress yet?

They are just starting to breed for this year. Here is the only one I still have here that hatched from last year's eggs about a month ago. It looks promising so far.
 

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