Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My wife recently got a Red Footed Tortoise, she has been wanting one for a long time, and final got one. I personally am more used to Desert Dwelling Tortioses, like Sulcatas, and Leopards...and one thing I noticed is the Red Foots (possibly Forest Dwelling Torotoises in General) seem to be less active, I am used to Sulcatas who are chow hounds, and always truckin around thier enclosures, and it seem our first expereince with Red Foots has (I hate to say it) been kinda dissapointing, we had him checked out, he is 100% Healthy...so he's not sick, we thought it might be too bright for him, so we dimmed the lights...the temps are perfect, humidity perfect...and we have seen him eating and he is deficating...its just he is not as "Active" as we are used to toroises being...he likes to hide quite a bit...is that a normal thing for "Forest Dwelling" Tortoises to do? I was hoping people with a broad range of Tortoise expereince can chime in, they are totally different than say Sulcatas...right? as far as activity...

We talked to numerous other Red Footed Tortoise owners, some agreed that they are not as active, but others say they are just as active....from our expereince..which is limited...it seems they are not as active as say a Sulcata....Could it be because of the enviroment they are naturally from? Desert Tortoises probably have to activly search for food, where as the Forest Tortoises probably don't as much...Just curious what peoples thoughts where...Thanks to all who reply...
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Executive Reptiles
Amanda Kingsbury & David Kendrick
www.executivereptiles.com

Go to Redfoots.com He will give you all the information you need. It is by far the best site for Redfoots. I have just started to go by his caresheets since I got my hatchling. I can already see a difference.

I find that this really depends upon the personality of your redfoot. I have four animals in my colony that I've raised since they were hatchlings, and two that I purchased as wild caught sub adults, acclimated over a period of four years. As hatchlings, I tend to find that young redfoots spend much of their time hiding. This has a great deal to do with predation, as small tortoises in the wild (in a tropical savanna, more precisely) are easy prey for all manner of birds, mammals, and even certain large lizards and snakes. Also, young redfoots have much thinner, absorbant skin than do sulcatas and other desert dwellers, and as such, this act of hiding works to keep their water reserves in tact, very important in the savanas of Brazil, Bolivia, and Venezuela, where rain patterns are seasonally variable.

Once your redfoot gets some size to its form, then you'll notice a distinct display of personality. They tend to be curious about everything, and exhibit some hilarious behaviors that I generally do not see in sulcatas. One of my redfoots is deathly afraid of insects, for instance. Whenever she sees a pill bug or beatle crawling toward her, she bolts. My captive animals display a curiosity that generally overwhelms them, so much so that if I walk up on them while they are eating, they will stop eating and chase me down, possibly in the hope of getting something better, possibly just to see what I'm doing in their domain. I've never seen this in a sulcata, unless I actually placed my foot so close to where it couldn't be ignored. My sulcatas seem to lose their "love" for me the second I place a meal before them, hissing and spitting if I come too near, but the redfoots continue their curious chase.

My wild caught animals tend to be more withdrawn. They do not come to me for food, although they are starting to associate me with it. Whenever I enter the enclosure, they're always waiting in their shelters with their eyes on the feeding spot. Once I'm out of sight and smell range, they dash from their spots, even trying to push the others aside to get their share of the goodies. I expect that they will eventually get over this fear, but I've had a wild caught leopard tortoise for ten years now that still hides in her shell even if I'm ten feet away from her, so I can't expect too much from the wild ones. Though I can't be sure, I think I'm making progress in personalizing their habits.

Well, I hope this helps in answering your questions. The previous reply suggested a good site for care info, but I would imagine you've got that area cornered, being a keeper of leopard and sulcata tortoises. Oh yes, and anytime there is an afternoon summer downpour, place your redfoot out in it (so long as all drowning hazards eliminated). In South Texas this past summer, it rained nearly every day in June and July. All of my redfoots gained several ounces over the summer; they ate like pigs and ran about endlessly while my sulcatas wallowed in mud, wondering when the sun was going to show itself.

T.G.

Thank you TG. That was a wonderful and informative post. I am new to Redfoots. Maybe you can answer this question for me. I have a Cherry head and the breeder who I got it from told me that they were a little smaller than the Redfoots. Is this true? Since I have gotten her I am always looking for information on different sites, and have been told that this isn't true. They are all the same size. Thanks

Redfoots are an incredibly diverse group of tortoises, and the delineation between "Cherryhead" and "ordinary" redfooted tortoises is not immediately clear from a scientific standpoint (taxonomists still generally refer to the species as Geochelone carbonaria, although some have disputed the genus categorization as being either Geochelone or Chelnoidis; Geochelone, as you may know, is being disputed essentially world wide in favor of more specific regional names, such as in the way of the Geochelone radiata being changed to Asterocheles Radiata). Now, consider the vastness of South America, and consider that Redfooted tortoises roam over seventy percent of the continent, from Columbia east to Brazil, Brazil South to Argentina, including much of the Peruvian foothills as well as many islands in the carribean (possibly introduced, but we have no records of this, as they would've been introduced during pre-Columbian times). These areas differ quite wildly in their environmental conditions, and this is why we generally see so much variation of redfoots. Now, it is generally true that cherryheads from Argentina and southern Brazil tend to be smaller on the average than other groups of redfoots, especially the "Amazonian giants" that typically populate the northern stretches of the Amazon Basin. However, I've noted that specimins from Venezuela, Surinam, and Columbia (animals most frequently encountered today) are generally the same size, if not slightly larger than cherryheads. I've seen some Argentinian cherryheads as large as nine inches, which is a typical size for most redfoots. Every now and then, one gets the opportunity to see an Amazonian giant, and these can grow up to sixteen or seventeen inches, some possibly larger.

Undoubtedly, integrades do occur naturally. One of mine appears to be such an animal, because it maintains the orange head and scaling features of an "ordinary" redfoot, but has some of the "leopard skin" coloration on its plastron. Keep in mind this is merely speculation, as I purchased him as a wild caught.

Clearly, more study is required. These animals range over several thousand square miles, and it is hard to imagine that they are all members of the same species. Kinixys belliana was once thought to comprise a single species, but those who classified it didn't take into account the enormous color and size variations between the populations. The same is said of Testudo graeca, which initially comprised all of the Mediterranean tortoises from Spain to Morocco to Tunisia to Egypt to Syria then Turkey and Eastern Greece, despite numerous climate differences, color, size and morphological variations. And don't even get me started on Geochelone pardalis and Testudo horsfieldi. So too, I think, Geochelone carbonaria will see a taxonomic adjustment in the near future.

I think the thing to keep in mind here is that variation is complicated. It is enough to make the prospective breeder want to pull his hair out. But the long and short of it is that cherryheads are generally more diminutive in size.

T.G.