Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a year old red foot tortoise. It is a tiny bit over 3 inches long. Is this average? Should it be bigger for this age? Any advice that one should be at one years old would be appreciated.thanks

crocker

Sounds pretty normal.

Here are some reasonable average lengths for Redfoot's.

2 - 2/12 years old - 3.5 inches long
3 years - 5 inches
5 -6 years - 6.5 inches
7-8 years - 7 to 9 inches
10 years - 10 to 11 inches
15 years - 11 to 12 inches
20 years - 13 to 14 inches

Good luck with your Redfoot!

In my opinion, 3 inches is large for a one year old. Many folks can get a false sense of the how quickly these animals should grow. In reality, the slower the better.

As long as your animal is feeding, bright eyed and active, don't worry too much about it. Overfeeding may cause fast growth but often causes shell deformities. The trade-off isn't worth it.

A wild one year old may be more like 2 inches.

Enjoy your tortoises slow growth as long as it shows signs of a healthy tortoise.

Paul

This is a very pretty girl, Paul! How old is she? Did you raise
her from hatchling?
I agree with you that slow growth is best and the only way to
achieve a smooth carapace! I have two 10 weeks old Redfoot
hatchlings and I record their weight and SCL every week. I
wonder which kind of chart I will get (at this point they
weigh around 50 g and measure around 65 mm SCL).

So long,
Gaby

Thanks Gaby. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of history on this female. More than likely, she's an import given that her shell is in good condition and she's roughly 5 years old or so by my estimation.

I have a small group of Cherry Heads, a new venture for me. My experience is primarily in box turtles but I also keep a group of adult and subadult NA Woods.

If you ever get around to taking pictures of your young redfoots, please share.

Paul

This is my other female redfoot... She's a bit larger.

Hi Paul,
this is a picture of my babies at 2 weeks old when I got them
(50 mm SCL, 35 g). Unfortunately I didn't find out how to include
more than one picture in my post (maybe you could help me out?),
but I posted more in the members gallery under 'tortoises',
'gabycher's photos.
Your girls are wonderful!

Best regards,
Gaby

Gaby,
Your babies are wonderful! Thanks for sharing. I will seek out your photo collection.

I took a couple new photos recently. Here's one of my only mature animal, a male about 8.25".

Wow paul, he is gorgeous. He is going to make one awesome breeder.

Thanks Kelly! My fingers are crossed to find a mature female for him this season.

Paul

Hi Paul,

just realized with checking the Yahoo Redfoot Forum, that you
are on that one too. So I looked at your pics in the Photo
section. Your animals are just beautiful!
Do I get it right then, that your group consists of 2 young
females, 1 young male and 1 adult male?
You will have such wonderful babies one day!

Good luck with finding a mate for your adult male,
Gaby

You are on the nose Gaby. I am very hopeful to come into a nice adult female or two for my adult male. I have parted with the young male but he will be heading to an experienced redfoot owner, tomorrow.

It looks like you have an adult redfoot and two baby cherry heads (or are they bolivian?). Either way, they are gorgeous.

On the redfoot group, I mostly read.

If I fall into a female this season, I'll post her for ya.

Cheers and thanks for the nice compliment.

Paul

Thanks Paul,- I really love my babies! They are 'regular' Redfoots
though, no Cherryheads. Abby's head scales are all orange though
and the center of each scute on her carapace is quite orange too,
which is unusual. From Pritchard's book 'The Turtles of Venezuela'
I learnt, that specimens like that have been found in Bolivia,
but orange and red head scales are also found on specimens from
Columbia and Panama.
I actually forgot to ask the breeder, when we visited him, from
which Southamerican country his original breeding stock came,
but I e-mailed him a few days ago concerning this, because
right now I am very interested in the various morphologies of
Redfoots from various regions. The 'problem' with captive bred
hatchlings is though (I think), that people have bred Redfoots
from different regions, and now you can find ones with the head-
markings typical for e.g. Columbia, but with plastron markings
typical for e.g. northern Brazil. So it is getting complicated...
My older Redfoot Kathrin is also just 3 years old. And while
her head markings are yellow going to orange and red, which again
would point at Columbia, her plastron is completely unstained,
which is typical for Redfoots from a specific region (Edo) in
Venezuela (there is a picture of her, along with ones from the
babies, in the file section of the Redfoot Forum, under 'Gaby's
Redfoot picks').
Now I'll stop boring you, but thanks for your interest in my
torts,
Gaby