pictures! and possible pyramiding?

[helensky]

Hi, I was hoping for an opinion on a few shots of my THB's, in particular the smaller one mini who I'm worried might be starting to pyramid. she has always had a slightly 'pinched' look about the front, but i put that down to the extra scute she has on her front left side. now one of her central scutes id looking a bit raised and I'm getting worried and a bit baffled as Tallis has no such problem. The only difference in their care has been that Mini hibernated in the garden this year (of her own accord, i didnt want her too!) and is much less of a cuttlefish-head than Tallis. I am very careful about their care and honestly don't know what I could be doing wrong.

Mini:

you can see her extra scute here.

minni's underside. it's looking a bit flakey and I'm worried about that following her rouge winter hibernation. It never comes out as clearly in pictures!

And Tallis for comparison. If anyone can sex them from this I'd be grateful! the barbs on their tails do not show however, and I'm worried I may have two boys

A few outside shots for good measure:

I love these ones because you see all the shoots around the torts have little beak bites out of them - I offered them some picked leaves in the hopes they'd give them a chance to grow!

MINE! - Tallis

My tort table. the wooden mushrooms I initially put in there to make it look pretty, but its a regular tort past-time now to knock them down as often as possible!

 

[egyptiandan]

They both look good to me

Mini looks like a male and Tallis looks like a female to me.

Danny

 

[helensky]

They both look good to me

Mini looks like a male and Tallis looks like a female to me.

Danny

oh no! I had my suspicions about that as Mini is a smaller. Damndamndamn it means I will have to look into rehoming one of them in the future; they're not quite 2 yet so not any time soon but still :'(

Out of interest, how do you tell Dan? Also, how common are extra scutes?

Thanks for the input

 

[egyptiandan]

Extra scutes are fairly common.

Definately not going by the size of the tail I'm going by the shape of the anal and femoral scutes (the 2 pair right above the tail on the plastron)
http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23365

Danny

 

[helensky]

I absolutely hate the idea of rehoming one of them but I was never looking into torts for breeding and at any rate it wouldn't be fair on Tallis. Gutted

 

[Yvonne G]

Just wait and see. Not saying anything against Danny's mental powers, but the tortoises are still pretty young. And if Danny does turn out to be correct (why should I doubt it? ) maybe you can just make two pens. There's nothing wrong with that. Part of the fun of tortoise-keeping is designing, building and decorating new pens!

 

[helensky]

Thanks for the input guys, I will cross the gender bridge when i come to it. Rather excited by my first picture heavy thread! Mini and Tallis are now officially cyber torts!