Kang and Rue

Awe Thank you. "Blushing with a smile on my face"

Me too. It is my favorite position for them. Lets me know that they are totally relaxed and therefore happy chappies. And Hi back at your gang.

Thank you and you are most welcome. How are yours doing? They must be quite big by now.

Thank you Mark. Next time I will get them to pose facing me.

Their new weights:

Rue b/d 31-05-2017 274g she did have an episode where her eyes and face swelled up ( was not sure why) But she received lots of extra soaks and all the good food choices and she seemed to recover well. However I see she has not picked up a lot of weight this month, in fact only 4g to be exact. Will be checking next months weigh in to hopefully see better results.

Kang - b/d 25/03/2018 400g
He has picked up 66g.
Do you think he is big enough to go outside full time yet? keeping in mind that this species only grows to between 1kg and 2kg's.

Clark b/d 07-04-2018 246g. He has picked up 26g.

Harry b/d 20-04-2018 182g He has picked up 12g.

All four have very different growth rates with Kang being the best and Rue being the worst. It seems that my first little one is my problem child as far as growth is concerned. And she is such a sweetie pie.

Definetely growing and thriving but I think its a female and named “Hope” is around 300 grams and 2 years old . I have cut down on the feeding a little and have switched onto a high fiber diet. This pic was taken some time ago.

Interesting. I wonder if the females grow at a much slower rate than the males for the Bowsprits. As my Rue is also growing at a very slow rate compared to Kang. Kang I do suspect is a male, as his face just looks male to me and he is just growing so big. He has now reached 400g and he is only 8 months old. Hope looks gorgeous and I see that she also has that little flair on her shell pattern like my Rue.

May I ask what the reason is for cutting down on the feeding a little?

I am cutting down on the high nutrition and store bought greens .moving towards a high fibre diet along with more cactus and grasses. She loves zucchini and Sweet potatoes and i am cutting her down . Males in general are larger in this species and Kang at 400 grams for a 8 month animal is amazing growth !!

Thank you. I must admit that I am quite amazed by his growth as well.

My lot get a mix between store bought, natural weeds and exo terra pellets.

This is all fascinating, and time will tell, but I can share two things that relate.

1. When they are started a little on the dry side, it takes them a while to get growing good. Sometime 2-3 years.
2. In my SA leopards, the males initially grew much faster than the females. The females caught up and had their own growth spurts around year 3 or 4. Same story with my Geochelone platynota. I have not seen this in sulcatas, and have not raised enough numbers other species from hatchling to adult to see such patterns, or the lack thereof.

For an animal that might reach 2000+ grams, I'd wait a little longer before going outside full time, but you are also in their native range and obviously in an area that suits them well too. It might be ok for you in that area, but what is the harm in waiting a while longer?

No harm at all. I thought it would be better if Kang got outside time for the full day on his own ( in the outside enclosure ) and the other three being smaller can enjoy the inside enclosure to themselves. But it was a thought. They can enjoy the status quo for a while longer. I remember now our discussion about the slow growth of dry started torts, I just forgot about the growth spurt after the 3 -4 year period. And seeing Hope's weight made me think that there might be a connection with growth and the sex of the tort. However you answered that one already and as you say time will tell.

Yum yummmy.

I absolutely love this thread and your beautiful Tortoises thank you so much for sharing looking forward to more pictures

Thank you.

I decided to let the little ones a little more freedom roaming the grass.
It is picture heavy but I do so love taking pics of my babies.
There are some butt pics of Rue.
@Sterant I caught Kang tucking into an empty snail shell. Next time I will find him one with the snail in it and see if he eats it.
And Whity came out to enjoy a Hibiscus flower as well.

Very interesting (tortoises look great!). My male eats snails when I give them to him which isn't often.

The instinct is there. Because it was not something I put in front of him.

May I nominate the bum picture for next year’s calendar contest?