Spots on Cherry Head Redfoot

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Neohippy

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Looks like 'marbling' as they call it. My little 2 year old has some, although not quite as pronounced as yours. It is considered a desirable trait amongst many red foot owners from what I hear. As far as I know it is a naturally occurring colouration, whether 'they' mean naturally as in occurs in the wild, or just common place amongst captive bred and their high nutrition low stress lifestyle, I have no clue. Either way, it is not detrimental, and I believe there is no known way to reverse it... Short of some sort of tortoise approved non-toxic felt pen...
 

fishtanker

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Looks like trouble, better give him to me :) Just kidding! Nice looking tortoise, that is very desireable trait, the head is so bright too. Looks like a real prize winner.
 

Dozer0214

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Ok cool!! He is our baby. We were kinda of worried. I really appreciate everybodys help. I LOVE THIS SITE!
 

Redfoot NERD

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Not to "over-ride or piggy-back".. some are this extreme - ( between 1-2 years old especially! )

muddycherryL.jpg


[ contributed/traded with Madkins.. for my "Brazilian/Cherryhead" breeding project ]

NERD
 

Madkins007

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Wow! Numa is looking sharp! Thanks, Terry!

Dozer- that marbling, mottling, etc. starts at the growing seams between scutes on the plastron (scales on the back shell)- just like in your photo. Sometimes it stays fairly light, just some spots here and there, but it can also go wild, like on the photo Terry shows.

In fact, if you look at Terry's photo carefully, you can see how there is no mottling in the middles of the scutes for the first three major growth rings, then just a little at the edge of the third ring, then the cells that make black pigment just start to give up. By the edge of the 4th/last ring, there are few working black pigment cells left so the next rings will probably be pretty much the pale colors.

In this photo of the same tortoise from 2 years ago, you can see that there is still a lot of black between each scute: http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r45/madkins007/2007-09-16Numa03.jpg (Wow- it almost looks like Terry and I took the photos on the same table! This pose was typical of Numa when I got it from a Big Box pet store- VERY shy back then!)

It seems to be fairly common on 'Cherryheads', even in the wild, and is usually considered a good thing.
 

dmmj

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Ok question time if those traits are desirable, does anyone know if they are genetic? or some type of random mutation?
 

Madkins007

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Redfoot NERD and cdmay, among others, have bred 'cherryheads' and can address that from experience.

Based on my readings, it seems to be fairly random but common in cherryheads, and seems to occur once in a while in other groups of Redfoots.
 
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