Introducing the Mighty Shelldor! Tremble puny humans!!

[l4dyamethyst2011]

Thanks again for the support x

 

[chase thorn]

welcome

 

[Amanda1]

I for one welcome our new tortoise overlords.

 

[drgnfly2265]

Oh too cute! It's a smiley scute!!!

 

[Byronie]

males are first, then females, then unknown last.

The Mighty Shelldor is a pardalis pardalis. Maybe your other baby is a pardalis babcocki?

No they are both gpp. I bought my first one from Tom ( http://www.tortoiseforum.org/User-Tom#axzz1YnL3tOBf ) whom I met on here.

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LOL! I hadn't noticed that, but now that you have pointed it out I have noticed another right above it =) Although this one looks a bit more spooky

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males are first, then females, then unknown last.

The Mighty Shelldor is a pardalis pardalis. Maybe your other baby is a pardalis babcocki?

Byronie, I just looked at a previous post of yours, and it appears that your other baby is a pardalis babcocki as Yvonne suggested. I could be wrong, or it could be a cross of the two subspecies, but the pics of your yearling do not look consistent with the typical pardalis pardalis markings. I would guess you paid more for this most recent hatchling? This one definitely has the characteristics of a pardalis pardalis.

I sure hope not. I purchased my first one through Tom who is a senior member on here. I spoke with him about my first torts lack of strong gpp characteristics and he told me that they can vary between individuals.... And if you compare T' Torteau to picks of babcocki there is quite a bit of difference. While she doesn't have as many spots as Shelldor, most of the babcocks I have seen have no spots on their scutes at all. Also her skin is much more speckled than that of most babcocki I have seen. Although I admit that Shelldor has a much stronger "gpp" appearance than T. In the end I trust Tom... Plus when I bought T, I wanted to try and get a female, Tom infomed me that there is no way to tell sex until around 5 years of age. He said that he had a split scute baby and that the breeder told him that in the 20 or so years of breeding every split scute had been female... So I hope she is a full blooded gpp... Now I am purchasing for strong "gpp" characteristics because I would like to start breeding them.

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So I added tiny 43g 5.1cm baby Shelldor the the habitat with 242g 9.5cm yearling T' Torteau yesterday. We were fearful that T would be a mean bully to little Shelly... Boy were we wrong! She is totally freaked out by him. He took off exploring the hab while she shyly watched from the hide box. When I finally took her out because he was hesitant to enter the box, she seemed intrigued but when he rushed up to check her out she totally pulled into her shell and began trying to turn away using only her back legs... The whole time she was doing that Shelldor is trying to stick his head into her shell and check her out... I wish I had thought to film that! So yeah it seems the Mighty Shelldor is aptly named ... T tried to bully him over food this morning by straddling the food dish but when he just ignored her and began eating anyway she looked defeated and just slinked off... She gets no respect.... I am expecting this to change after she gets used to having him around, but who knows she has always been a little shy but Shelldor is not shy at all... Oh and thanks for all the compliments on Shelldor's looks!

 

[Jacqui]

A bit of a belated welcome! I admit I am a bit jealous of your new guy. I would love to have a couple of them around here.

 

[terryo]

Yes, welcome...absolutely beautiful...Times like this, I wished I loved in a warm climate.

 

[DixieParadise]

Hail to the Mighty, Shelldor!!! (Now bowing my somewhat large puny human body) ....

Great pictures.