Huge russian female

[tortadise]

Picked this girl up from an employee at petsmart Sunday after forgetting to get some more thermometers at the NARBC show. Shes huge and very white. Has some split scute thing going on but shes a tank. 8 3/16" SCL and 1010 grams. Gotta a big ol' male for her when shes out of quarantine.

 

[Eloise's mommy]

No pictures?? I want to see pictures!!

 

[tortadise]

Theres a picture. Must not be showing up on your device.

 

[Jacqui]

She is impressive!

 

[Len B]

Very nice find, any history on her ?

 

[tortadise]

Well supposed to be 2 years old per the previous owner. Which is impossible at her size. She is captive bred and that's about all i could get out of the girl which seemed true. Shes a monster.Looks to be Kazakh stani which works great for my large male who i choose not to breed with the other horsfieldi types i have.

 

[WillTort2]

What caused the uneven scutes? And is there any way to balance the growth lines?

Good luck with the breeding. How large is your large male?

 

[tortadise]

I would presume too high of incubation when she was in the egg. My male is 7 ish not really huge but bigger than my other males.

 

[Tom]

Nice find.

 

[luvpetz27]

Wow!! She is a keeper!

 

[lynnedit]

Wow, you have some BIG Russian tortoises. 7" male!

 

[tortadise]

He is very very aggressive too. He cant even be in the outside pen with the others just the 6 of them in a 400 square foot pen and he still finds the others and bites and rams, and bites. Very aggressive little bastard he is. So he gets supervised breeding time is what we tell him. His name is Satan btw.

Finding her was completely accidental too. I went to the NARBC show both days and forgot to get some thermostats for the new incubators so I went to pet-smart to pay twice the amount for the same ones. I had some hats and shirts embroidered with "North Texas Tortoise Sanctuary" on them and she noticed it and said hey want a bug female russian? Typically most peoples description of big is nothing to what they say. Sure enough she was not lying. Shes a biggen, and very very blonde/white. Cool looking specimen, and a great find indeed.

 

[lynnedit]

And I think lucky for her, indeed!

Satan, lol.

Now I know that I just need to wear Tortoise Sanctuary T shirts to get more tortoises!

 

[tortadise]

It worked for me

 

[Momof4]

That's one "Big Bertha" you have there!

 

[kanalomele]

Excellent find.

 

[Eloise's mommy]

Now I can see her!! I hope my baby gets that big!!! wow!!!

 

[biochemnerd808]

Wow, that is indeed huge! That's some wacky growth she has going on... doesn't so much look like split scutes, as much as a wild caught tortoise that then grew REALLY REALLY fast, but in too dry conditions... almost looks like some of the scutes 'stuck' together, rather than growing all around?
Either way, great find, and truly a tank!

Picked this girl up from an employee at petsmart Sunday after forgetting to get some more thermometers at the NARBC show. Shes huge and very white. Has some split scute thing going on but shes a tank. 8 3/16" SCL and 1010 grams. Gotta a big ol' male for her when shes out of quarantine.

 

[Laura]

huge and appears to be Still growing!

 

[Talka]

I demand more pictures!