Is this a cherryhead?

[Billy29]

My baby tortoise was advertised as a red foot tortoise but he seems to have a lot of red on his face. Is he a Cherryhead?

 

[Anyfoot]

Let's have a look at the plastron please Billy.

 

[Billy29]

I will take a picture when I get home.

 

[Billy29]

Here you go

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I'd say it's not a Cherryhead.
Just a colorful example.

 

[Frogg.Queen]

Both red foots and cherry heads have bright red heads when their a hatchling. Difference is that a RF's head turns yellow over time, while cherries' heads stay mostly red their whole life.
The easiest way to tell the difference between the species when this young would be on their front legs...
the cherry head will have a single isolated red scale on each elbow, having no other red scales above or below it. For red foots, they sometimes have a red scale in that same area, but it would be surrounded in more red scales (not isolated).

This isn't the best photo example, but the cherry head (the first photo) has the single isolated red scale on its elbow, while the red foot (second photo) does have that same scale, but it's not isolated bc it's surrounded by more scales.

 

[Anyfoot]

Here you go

Looks like a northern redfoot to me. Keep taking photos as he grows so we can look back on how they develope.

 

[Beep-Beep]

Let's have a look at the plastron please Billy.

I'm having a question right there, trying to learn...
Why did you need to have a look at the plastron?
What are the telltales?

Cheers,
Beep-Beep

 

[Billy29]

What are the characteristics of a northern red foot compared to the other subtypes

 

[Anyfoot]

The Brazilian (aka cherry head) has darker areas around the plastron seems. Where as the northern redfoot either has no dark areas or the dark areas are a lighter colour than the Brazilians. Some of my northern hatchlings had no dark areas and some were like Billy's. But as they grew the dark areas either faded or stoped as they were. I've only hatched 2 Brazilians and it was obvious they were darker on the plastrons. However my adult Brazilians have vertically all black plastron so maybe it's easier to tell with mine, some adult Brazilians I see on here don't have as dark a plastron as mine. It is hard to tell what's what at such a young age. On top of that there are northern x Brazilian in our hobby that confuse matters.
Have a look at some of @allegraf threads. Tons of baby Brazilians and have the obvious Brazilian plastrons.

 

[Billy29]

What other characteristics do they have? Do they keep any of the red on the head? How about size?

 

[Anyfoot]

Northerns are usually yellow and orange and Brazilians red. But there is exceptions, Allegra has a yellow Brazilian for example. The head morphs tend to be different to, Brazilians tend to have a more pointed nose than northerns. Again I've seen exceptions to this rule.
Size, once upon a time Brazilians were said to not grow as big as northerns, cdmay has a 14 female Brazilian, I have one over 12". So that's that thought out of the equation. Although there may be more than one form of Brazilian out there, maybe the dwarf Brazilian is not a myth.
Supposedly only Brazilians have the front elbow spur. Some of my northerns do too.
Northern males get the constricted waste that Brazilian males don't. Northerns
Northerns don't marble, some Brazilians do, but not all.
Then there's the plastrons. Northerns tend to be lighter in color and the dark areas they have are not very dark. Brazilians tend to have either a very dark plastrons or a mottled plastron that consists of light and very dark and can show marbling.

Don't forget there are Paraguayan/Bolivian redfoots too. These are said to be the giants of the redfoot world.

 

[Pearly]

here is my Brazilian plastron, you can also see distinct elbow spurs

 

[Pearly]

View attachment 214367 here is my Brazilian plastron, you can also see distinct elbow spurs

and here is my Northern

 

[Pearly]

I'd say it's not a Cherryhead.
Just a colorful example.

Looks like a northern redfoot to me. Keep taking photos as he grows so we can look back on how they develope.

So you Guys don't think this is a Brazilian baby???? I don't have Tucker's baby pictures on this phone but it seems that his neonate plastron looked pretty similar to this little Cutie... again, I am just learning here

 

[Anyfoot]

So you Guys don't think this is a Brazilian baby???? I don't have Tucker's baby pictures on this phone but it seems that his neonate plastron looked pretty similar to this little Cutie... again, I am just learning here

Time will tell pearls. I have no photos on this phone for comparison. Can you find baby photos of tucker.

 

[Billy29]

The reptile store I got him from had several of them. He was one of two that had red on the top of the head. The others were more yellow. I picked him out because he was the most active and I liked his personality.

 

[Pearly]

Time will tell pearls. I have no photos on this phone for comparison. Can you find baby photos of tucker.

I have all the baby pictures on hard drive of my desk top at home in Texas. I'm in Florida now with the kids. I'll see if I can fish out some from my old threads here.

 

[Pearly]

here is one from when he was 5 months old

 

[Pearly]

View attachment 214372 here is one from when he was 5 months old

As tiny hatchling those dark areas at scute seems were just dark, the white color came in next few weeks as he was beginning to Marble