My Reds.. & a bit about me

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kellysmith1976

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Hi All,

Well im a newbie here, So i best introduce myself!
My Name is Kelly and i live in South east England. I have rehomed 4 redfoots, And am totally in love with them!!
I rehomed 3 at the begnning of last year, Heres a pic of them, 2 are 'normal' Redfoots, One is a Cherryhead..
HPIM1053.jpg


What i would like your opinions on is.... My newest Red, Im led to believe she is Female, But i thought i would double check!.. I think she is about 8yrs old, she has not had the best upbringing, She has quite severe deformity of her shell..
HPIM1128.jpg


She is still in quarantine at the moment but i would like to introduce her to my little ones, the cherryhead little one is definately a male!, Im unsure of other 2 normals as they are too small..
My new Red Scarlett is a Cherryhead also.. Her plastron is Totally straight, Not concave at all
HPIM1130.jpg


Her tail is quite Stubby and not really pointy..
HPIM1117.jpg


So opinions please... Is scarlett a girl ? ?

She is going from strength to strength, She was fed for at least a year on Rabbit food, with no access to water or UV... Her fave food is mangoes and mushrooms now.. Mind you it took her a while to realise that your suppose to eat the fresh food not step in it!!

Kelly
 

egyptiandan

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Hi Kelly, welcome to the forum :)
Your new Cherryhead is a female. :D If you like you can post pictures of your normals and we can give a go at sexing them for you.

Danny
 

kellysmith1976

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Great!... Heres Rita...

I was told by her previous owners that she was a she!

HPIM1015.jpg


And here is Sue.. Again ive been told shes a girl!

HPIM1022.jpg


And Finally my gorgeous Cherryhead Bob, Which im sure is male..This is not a good pic, But the tail actually curls to side, And is very pointy!

HPIM1019.jpg


Kelly
 

egyptiandan

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Bob is a male :D The other 2 are females :D

Danny
 

kellysmith1976

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Thank you!!!!!.... So now do you think that when Scarlett is ready, Do you think it would be ok to put them all in together?... Or keep the 2 cherryheads together?

as now my group is 3 females and a male...!!!
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Kelly: Welcome to the forum! Your reds are very pretty!

Yvonne
 

egyptiandan

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I would just put the 2 Cherryheads together. The normal redfoots aren't yet big enough to lay and best to get a normal male for them.
The 2 forms should be kept seperate for breeding purposes. In the future they will most likely be different subspecies.

Danny
 

kellysmith1976

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How long do you think the quarantine period should be.. She has been isolated now for 4months.. and im dying to introduce her!..
I hadnt given much thought to breeding.. How old are they generally?.. Im asking as Scarlett was kept with another tort all her life until i got her 4months ago, I was going to rehome both but frustratingly he decided to give the other one away to someone else... If the other was male.. Could she have eggs?.. Or is she too small?... I have heard that females can retain sperm.. is this true ?

I think Bob is too small to worry about them breeding yet!...
 

Jacqui

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Just butting in here...sorry :p

I myself always go atleast 6 months for quarantines and try to make it more like a year just to be extra cautious. Another reason I would wait, is it appears she hasn't had the best life so far. It would be good for her, I believe, to be in better shape before possibly having the added stress and depletion of her body's supplies to produce eggs.
 

Madkins007

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How big are they? To me, Bob looks pretty feminine, but that could just be because s/he is smaller than I think s/he is. The angle of the opening of the anal scutes is pretty close to 90 degrees, and the tail is pretty short. But, of course, if Bob is under about 5-6", then those would not kick in so much.
 

egyptiandan

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If you look again you'll find the tail is pretty long :D It's not the best picture as the tail is straight out. But if he's not concave yet than he's not adult.

How big are they both SCL?

Danny
 

kellysmith1976

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Hi, Thanks for your replies!

Scarlett is 19cm SCL... And her plastron is straight, Her tail is Thick and stumpy, I took this other pic:

HPIM1255.jpg


Heres a pic of Bob, Hes 15cm SCL, His Plastron is starting to concave.. His tail has a pointy tip...
I just took this too:

HPIM1256.jpg
 

egyptiandan

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Definately a pair. :D With the fact Scarlett should be larger and her age, I'd say she was fertile now. Bob though will need a bit more size before he's adult, 18 to 20cm.

Danny
 

Madkins007

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egyptiandan said:
Definately a pair. :D With the fact Scarlett should be larger and her age, I'd say she was fertile now. Bob though will need a bit more size before he's adult, 18 to 20cm.

Danny

Here is Oscar's plastron...
2008-11-22Oscac.jpg
[/img]

He is 240mm long SCL, and has been fanning for about a year, so his sex is confirmed.

His tail reaches about 1/3rd of the way around his shell and tucks in around his hind leg (I think that may be the tip by his right leg), and the anal scutes open up nice and wide- about an opening of about 120 degrees or so to allow maximum tail movement side to side.

Here he is from October of 2007, when he was about 150mm long...
2007-10-30Oscac.jpg
[/img]

Still the long tail- so long I rarely see it protruding- still the open anal scute angle.

Obviously, Oscar is a Northern and Bob is a Southern, but Bob looks a lot more like my young torts that I think are female.

Now- I am a newbie to all of this and still learning a ton a day, so I may easily be WAY off base. I am just posting my observations here.
 

K9KidsLove

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Hi...your redfoots are beautiful.
I agree you need to keep them separated for another year at least. You also might want to take a poop sample from each to have a reptile vet do a fecal. I wouldn't even take the torts in. That way they can't insist on medicating before you have a chance to post the results on here. If the fecals are positive, ask the vet how s/he rated it. They are rated from 0-4, with 4 being badly infested. People on here will let you know if they NEED to be medicated or just given some pumpkin.
Good luck
Patsy
 
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