Cherryhead Size

[cdmay]

I had to move all of my animals out of the house and away from the yard as we are having our house fumigated for termites. I don't wish this ordeal on anyone!
But, I took the opportunity to take some measurements of some of my adult cherryheads.
One female is 11.5 inches and another is 11 inches. One of my males is 9.5 inches and another young one that I am raising is sexually active at only 8 inches.
But my big female named Darth Maul...

...is now 14 inches and she weighs 21 pounds. She routinely lays clutches of as many as 10 very large eggs.
These animals are highly variable as I have seen many 9 inch females that lay perfectly fertile eggs. And although my long term male (well over 20 years) is only 9.5 inches, I at one time had a male that was nearly 14 inches and I have seen others that were over 12 inches.

 

[allegraf]

That is alot of trouble! At least it gave you a good excuse to measure the behemoth that is Darth! I'm sure they are not amused to be moved.

 

[Crazy1]

Wow carl Darth Maul is aptly named what a beautfully colored and marked head. Though I have to admit she doesn't look too happy.

 

[Candy]

Beautiful color on her head Carl and I have to agree with Robyn she looks pretty mad. Maybe you need to post some more pictures of her so we can get a different view of her. We would love to see more pictures of all of your Cherryheads. How old are the males when they become sexually active? They say that Dale is about 4 years old now and he's 6 1/2 inches in length will that tell you anything?

 

[cdmay]

She always looks mad..."Now I have to dig this stupid hole!"

Or in this old photo (scanned) she is the top tortoise of the three and even then at 4 or 5 inches she exuded a bad attitude.

BTW, the one at the bottom center I also still have and she is the 11.5 inch female I mentioned above.

---

Beautiful color on her head Carl and I have to agree with Robyn she looks pretty mad. Maybe you need to post some more pictures of her so we can get a different view of her. We would love to see more pictures of all of your Cherryheads. How old are the males when they become sexually active? They say that Dale is about 4 years old now and he's 6 1/2 inches in length will that tell you anything?

The males become sexually active when they start to display secondary sexual characteristics. So if you have a 4 year old male that now has as elongated tail and the beginnings of a concave plastron, my guess is that he will start trying to breed. He may not be too successful until his is larger, but he will try.

 

[REDFOOTMATT]

She always looks mad..."Now I have to dig this stupid hole!"

Or in this old photo (scanned) she is the top tortoise of the three and even then at 4 or 5 inches she exuded a bad attitude.

BTW, the one at the bottom center I also still have and she is the 11.5 inch female I mentioned above.

---

Beautiful color on her head Carl and I have to agree with Robyn she looks pretty mad. Maybe you need to post some more pictures of her so we can get a different view of her. We would love to see more pictures of all of your Cherryheads. How old are the males when they become sexually active? They say that Dale is about 4 years old now and he's 6 1/2 inches in length will that tell you anything?

The males become sexually active when they start to display secondary sexual characteristics. So if you have a 4 year old male that now has as elongated tail and the beginnings of a concave plastron, my guess is that he will start trying to breed. He may not be too successful until his is larger, but he will try.

---

Great pics, I have 3 at around 6" and I am very eager to get them breeding. Lots of regular northern eggs incubating for now at least. I'd love to see some more current group photos of your Brazilians. I find it interesting how they vary so much in size.