Cherry Head Size

[Tortoise]

Hi
I was curious about how large everyone's cherry heads are at maturity and at what size they may lay eggs that can be viable?
Also weights would be interesting too.
It seems the information in books etc can show huge variations in this species.
Thank you!

 

[DixieParadise]

Mine have a long way to go. I will let you know in about 5 years.

 

[Tortoise]

Dixieparadise-I guess I have to be patient

 

[N2TORTS]

Hi
I was curious about how large everyone's cherry heads are at maturity and at what size they may lay eggs that can be viable?
Also weights would be interesting too.
It seems the information in books etc can show huge variations in this species.
Thank you!

Generally.....females will be around the 9" size and 5-8 #. This isn't saying you can't have smaller females who lay,but most of time the clutches are very small,or not viable,even as much as *egg dumping* on the surface for young females.My best producing females are all around 11" plus. I'm sure some of the other experts ,will add to this....... :shy:
HAPPY TORTn
JD

 

[Tortoise]

Hi
I was curious about how large everyone's cherry heads are at maturity and at what size they may lay eggs that can be viable?
Also weights would be interesting too.
It seems the information in books etc can show huge variations in this species.
Thank you!

Generally.....females will be around the 9" size and 5-8 #. This isn't saying you can't have smaller females who lay,but most of time the clutches are very small,or not viable,even as much as *egg dumping* on the surface for young females.My best producing females are all around 11" plus. I'm sure some of the other experts ,will add to this....... :shy:
HAPPY TORTn
JD

Thanks JD. I had read around 9 inches but wondered as cherry heads are said to mature at a smaller size whether this was normal for them too.
Thank you-she has a few inches to grow I think.

 

[EricIvins]

I've seen and had Females start laying at 6-8" SCL........As early as four years from Egg to Egg, with good clutches too...

 

[HLogic]

All of my cherryheads, with the exception of one, are 25.5 cm (10 inches) or less. The smallest productive female is 21.6 cm (8.5 inches) but she has been laying fertile eggs for ~5 years. All of these torts are wild-caught and have been in captivity for 10 - 25 years. The largest one (at almost 11") was probably recruited as a youngster and has grown more rapidly than its longer-term wild counterparts.

I suspect that 7" would be about the minimum size for viable egg production from a female cherryhead of the more diminutive race. I'll know later this year or early next as I have a female of that size and am hoping for something this season.

---

Of course, 6" might work too!

 

[jackrat]

The largest I've personally seen was 14"

 

[cdmay]

Hi
I was curious about how large everyone's cherry heads are at maturity and at what size they may lay eggs that can be viable?
Also weights would be interesting too.
It seems the information in books etc can show huge variations in this species.
Thank you!

There is quite a bit of variation in size and shape within the race of red foots called cherryheads. This is not really unusual in tortoises and there are many populations that exhibit a wide range of sizes in the adult animals. Yellow foots from some parts of South America (Peru), the Pinzon Island tortoises in the Galapagos Islands and some of the Aldabra tortoises all have adults that are wildly different in size regardless of age.
Cherry heads seem to fit this category too. So some females may not start laying eggs until they are over 12 inches while another female from the same group might start laying at 8 or 8.5 inches. Some might even lay at smaller sizes but I would be careful not to attempt a breeding with a young female just because she 'looks' mature or because she has reached a certain size.
If I had a long term female that was showing signs of maturity (i.e. a large gap between the carapace and plastron, growth that had slowed dramatically after reaching a certain size, other signs of age, etc...) but was still on the small size, I might try breeding her.
On the other hand, I would not allow a young female that had simply grown to a certain size in a short period of time to breed. There are a number of reason for this but the simplest way to explain it would be this: Suppose you had a daughter who was 10 years old but 'big' for her age. Your wife informs you that she has just started menstruation too. Would you then conclude that it was time to marry her off so she could start making you grandchildren? Of course not. Just because she had reached an age or physical condition where she might be able to produce children doesn't mean it would be a good idea for her to do so.
Same goes for captive animals. It's better to think about their long term health and give them a little more time.
Back when people started breeding Burmese pythons all the time they found that they could push a hatchling female to breeding size in only 2.5 years. So a lot of breeders did just that and they got viable eggs from those females too. But then after about 6 or 7 years...ooops! a lot of the young females started rolling over in their cages dead. Its seems that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.