Eyeless Red footed tort

[Tori Sparrow]

I have adopted a tortoise who hatched without eyes. She's sweet, curious, and a delight to have. I have noticed that she makes a clicking noise. I was wondering if that's normal of red foots or if she is just mastered the art of sonar all on her own

 

[MPRC]

My tortoises click on occasion. I would love to see pics of your little one. Does she find her food on her own or do you have to assist her?

 

[Redstrike]

Completely normal, I have 4 that do the same thing occasionally.

 

[Tori Sparrow]

 

[MPRC]

She's beautiful and unique. About how old is she?

 

[naturalman91]

doe's she have to be hand fed? or does she find her food from smell?

 

[Tori Sparrow]

I have found that outside she munches on the plant life but I hand feed her protein & I believe she is about 3. I adopted her recently & absolutely adore her. I'd like to introduce her to other redfoots, but was told they scare her. Since nothing about tortoises is fast I'm thinking its best to allow her to familiarise with her new home before pushing friends on her (if ever).

 

[Tori Sparrow]

I find it fascinating that I can put her down in her enclosure and afew clicks later she heads straight for her hide (regardless of where I put her or the hide).

 

[mike taylor]

I can't see the pictures!

 

[Momof4]

She is beautiful and amazing!
So glad she found you

 

[MPRC]

@Tori Sparrow - That's great that she can get around well. I wouldn't be surprised if she was uneasy around other torts, my two seem to do a lot of visual communication that she would miss out on, like standing really tall and posturing.

@mike taylor - Can you see her now?

 

[Badkneesbond]

This is amazing. Raising a tortoise can be tricky but raising an eyeless tortoise is quite wonderful.

 

[Tori Sparrow]

I live on 10 acres of forest zoned agriculture. There are no pesticides or herbicides sprayed given the large number of animals in the area. Eventually I'd love to take in tortoises of all kinds as a rescue/sanctuary as there is not one that I know of in Florida which seems silly given the near perfect climate.
Meanwhile Dottie (the name she came with) is an absolute delight to have around. And I am thrilled to have adopted her.

 

[cdmay]

Wow, that is a heck of nice thing you're doing for that tortoise!
Looking at the photos you can see a bit of disfiguration of the head due to the missing eyes. This seems to be affecting the jaws too, so very likely you'll be getting some odd noises-- or exaggerations of normal sounds from her.
But I wouldn't worry.
Nice work.

 

[Yvonne G]

I find it fascinating that I can put her down in her enclosure and afew clicks later she heads straight for her hide (regardless of where I put her or the hide).

It really is amazing how aware blind animals are of their surroundings, and where they are in their little world. I used to have a blind horse. Her paddock had hot wire around the inside of the fence because she was a chewer. She could trot around that paddock, and once in a while she would even gallop around in there, and never once hit the fence or bumped into anything. I know she was blind, because she had both her eyes removed due to cancer.

 

[tctpa523]

That's awesome. I produced a few eyeless babies over the years. I had one eyeless last a year, but I had never seen one last into sub adulthood. After upgrading my incubator, I've had much better success, more perfect hatchlings, better overall hatch rate. Do you know the history on this tortoise? Any idea who produced him/her?

 

[allegraf]

I have adopted a tortoise who hatched without eyes. She's sweet, curious, and a delight to have. I have noticed that she makes a clicking noise. I was wondering if that's normal of red foots or if she is just mastered the art of sonar all on her own

My biggest worry would be whether she would be able to eat and eat enough. Looks like she is past the fragile stage and is doing well. I do see some deformity with the jaw, could be the lack of eyes, but so long as she is eating and doing well...keep up the good work. Beautiful colors.

 

[Tori Sparrow]

@tctpa523 l are dopted her, and for the record I am more than willing to nurse any deformed hatchlings. From what I understand she was hatched by the tortoise yard. When I adopted her she had only ever been hand fed. As she is 3 years old she and I are going to see if she is willing to learn to eat on her own. She seems to be happy to eat outside but inside prefers to be hand fed (meaning in the last few weeks she has not eaten inside without me hand feeding her). I'm wondering if that is because outside she has live plants that hold still for her while inside not so much. As I live in Florida it's not too much of a problem since we usually only have about 3 weeks of weather with lows under 60.
By summer I'm hoping to have a permanent outside place for her.
Though of course she will still come inside from time to time.

 

[mike taylor]

That's crazy . She is way older than three . She is beautiful even without eyes .

 

[Tori Sparrow]

@allegraf we are working on it. She has been hand fed her whole life. We shall see if she can master eating enough on her own... Slowly, because as my tortoise friendly vet told me, "Nothing happens fast with a tortoise."