redfoots with yellowfoots?

[blackcat38]

Can redfoots be housed with yellowfoots? they have the same dietry and housing requirments don't they?

Not planning on yellowfoots, don't think there are many cb in the uk, just wondering really

 

[Candy]

I saw this posted once and the answer was yes. If I remember correctly they come from the same area, but the Redfoots stay on the outer borders of the rainforest and the Yellowfoots actually live in the center of it.

 

[Itort]

Yes, this probably one of the few instances where you can combine species. Of course you would have to go thru the quarinteen proticals.

 

[blackcat38]

What about when they because sexualy mature? And say you had one male RF with 2 female RF and 2 female YF, would he "know" not to mate with the YF?
And what would happen if they did, what offspring would they produce, if any? As this happened before?

 

[Itort]

At maturity they can interbreed in capvity though courtship rituals are different. I have seen hybrids for sale. In the wild with the different courtship rituals and habitat it is very uncommon.

 

[blackcat38]

At maturity they can interbreed in capvity though courtship rituals are different. I have seen hybrids for sale. In the wild with the different courtship rituals and habitat it is very uncommon.

What are the hybride like, are they healthy and fertile? Do you know if any have reached adulthood?

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you know you get mules (horse + donkey) and zorses (horse + zebra) beefalo (cow + buffalo), liger (lion + tiger), what are the hybrides called?

 

[Itort]

They are apparently healthy. I have never seen an adult and can't say weather or not they are fertile. There is an ad on Kingsnake for an apparent hybrid. Personally I don't beleive hybridizing without purpose should be done.

 

[blackcat38]

Personally I don't beleive hybridizing without purpose should be done.

I agree, they can't contribute to the gene pool so they don't serve a purpose apart from satifying curiosity.

So if people keep reds and yellows together when they're younger, do they have to be separated when reaching sexual maturity? Or would they be ok together if there were both sexes of each species, would they choose to sick to there own?

 

[Itort]

I would seperate adults to proclude interbreeding. In most if not all captive situtions, there would not be enough space for them to seperate. Males can be very persistant even though courtship behaviour is different.

 

[Neohippy]

A sterile offspring would be most interesting, I think. It would give the tort enthusiast an excuse to keep many, many torts, and still negate the possibility of breeding. Tort enthusiasts with no desire to become tort breeders.
Though, the experimentation period would take a long damn time. The years waiting to see if a female of either variety (red or yellow), could even produce a batch of eggs, let alone a viable living batch of eggs. Then, if the eggs do hatch, and you wait the years and years for them to become sexually mature... You'd still need ANOTHER batch of orangefoots(?) from a different genetic pool with opposite genders, in order to eventually find out if the two orangefoots would produce viable eggs as well.

A decade or two total maybe? Anyone wanna sign up for a "life's work" project? At least at the end of the work you could sell a book on it to all of us chomping at the bit tort enthusiasts, eagerly awaiting news on orangefoots.

 

[Itort]

Interesting idea but the price I have seen for the hybrids is 4 to 5 times the price of either a RF or YF. I believe they will remain an oddity.

 

[shelber10]

these are hybrid yellow foot/red foot tortoise babies
http://www.theturtlesource.com/tortoise_inventory.asp?cat=444&id=225689759

 

[Madkins007]

The fact that Turtlesource is honest about not knowing if they really ARE hybrids is refreshing, and I think I would not sell such a potentially interesting animal.

If I remember and understood the article correctly, DNA research showed no signs of interbreeding in the wild- no individuals with 'iffy' genes. Now, hybrids usually happen easier in captivity for various reasons, but to find no DNA in the wild argues that if it does happen, it does not result in fertile offspring.

I would also point out that this is an odd pair of tortoises- one of the most popular species in the US and Europe, but lots we don't know. But the sheer fact it has been kept so long... for a hybrid to occur NOW sort of seems unlikely, and more likely to be just a color phase.

It would be interesting to see a good high-resolution photo from various angles to test the characteristics point for point, but the points shown all look like pure Yellow-foot.