Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are some photo's of my newest hatchling's. They were born on Sep 21st. Being that I am a die hard Yankees fan I think that they will all have names that have something to do with the Yankees being that on the day they were born it was the day that the last game was played at Yankee stadium.

That's awesome. Tiny lil guys.1st one looks like a Ted Williams, then maybe, ahhh..sorry...sox fan.Congradulations on your little ones.

Thats a great looking little litter you have there, congrats!!!
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Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus

Congrats on the little guys.
It looks like two of them have an odd scute arrangement along the back. Do either of the parents have this? It will make them easy to differentiate and tell who is who. Enjoy them!!

Which 2 are you refering too? What do you mean by an odd scute arrangement.

Turtle 2 and 3 have extra dorsal scutes. I can't see the rear part of number 1 well enough to tell. If you trace backwards in a straight line down the spine, there should be 5 dorsal scutes. Your guys have a couple extra odd shaped ones towards the rear. The scutes should be regularly shaped and symmetrical. The odd scutes are kind of triangular and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. They don't affect the turtle's health in any way. It's just a slight abnormality in the way they look and nobody really can say for sure whether it's a genetic or environmental issue during incubation.

Using these photo's as the example and from left to right being 1 2 and 3 which 2 are you saying have the extra dosal scutes. And are you refering to the bumps on the backs of the shell because I am trying to understand what you are telling me but its hard when I am not sure what to look for I hope thats not a dumb statement. Picture 2 is cleare than the first.

The one in the middle has normal scutes. The dorsal scutes are the ones that run straight down the middle of the back. they normally have five, and they are lined up straight. I marked the extras on the other two guys.

And as mentioned above....this does not effect their health in any way. I find it more a curiosity. I have found wild turtles with an occasional unusual scute arrangement. It can certainly be an easy way to identify individual turtles. Of course if these are your pets, you will identify them as individuals anyway. Enjoy them!

Thanks for numbering them like you did that will be very helpful information for the future. I am going to check my other 11 hatchlings from last yerar and the year before because I am curious if they have that also. Would I be able to see that on adults also?

Yes you would. The scutes don't change, except to get bigger, for the rest of the turtle's life. If they have extra scutes when they hatch, they have them until they die.