Look what I found! (new picture 8/8)

[exoticsdr]

Went out to put the young tortoises, check on the bigger ones and make sure the roos were ready for bed...well, my oldster Leopard tort, Tortolini was digging to lay and my young female red kangaroo came up to say hello, well...look what I found in her pouch.

 

[jaizei]

RE: Look what I found!

Wow

 

[Balboa]

RE: Look what I found!

aaawwwww!!!

Now THAT is too cool Doc.

 

[african cake queen]

RE: Look what I found!

hi, thats so cool! lindy

 

[dmarcus]

RE: Look what I found!

Wow that is awesome..

 

[exoticsdr]

RE: Look what I found!

For those wondering, the baby is about 1 1/2" long and I'm going to try to get a picture once a week and update his/her growth until we pull her for handfeeding in about 5 months.

 

[Laura]

RE: Look what I found!

does she have other joeys? or is this her first?

 

[terryo]

RE: Look what I found!

How did you find that itty bitty thing in there? How amazing! I hope you can keep posting pictures so we can watch her/him grow.

 

[exoticsdr]

RE: Look what I found!

This is her first and mine....I raised mama (Ginger Roogers) from about 4 months old.

 

[Fernando]

RE: Look what I found!

Amazing!!!

 

[DesertGrandma]

RE: Look what I found!

I have never seen anything like this and am absolutely amazed!! How did you know it was there? I always thought they just stayed in there hidden until they were ready to come out. Please tell us more....

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

RE: Look what I found!

You have a kangaroo?! Nice!! How big? How many? Do you own both the dam and the sire, or did you borrow the sire from someone else?

 

[coreyc]

RE: Look what I found!

Awesome You should have your own TV show Dr Todd's Wild Kingdom

 

[exoticsdr]

RE: Look what I found!

I have both the boomer (male) and the flyer (female) and I bottle raised both in my house and spent countless hours handfeeding and nurturing them both. Females tend to stay sweet throughout their life and males...well, boys can be boys and they can be very dangerous, especially if they have no fear. My male, Teddy Roooosevelt, is no exception and though sweet most of the time, he like to try to fight with me when he gets the chance. I discourage confrontations by walking away....or jogging,...or running, depending on how he is acting..and he's only a youngster. The joey can easily be felt in the pouch by gently placing your hand on the outside of the pouch and when I felt that tell-tale bump, my heart started racing.
A little about kangaroo reproduction: In the male, the testicles are located at about the heighth of the belly button (umbilicus) on other animals.....always makes me think of that classic line in "There's Something About Mary" when the stepfather yells, "Well how the hell did he get the beans above the frank in the first place?!" The female, after breeding, gets pregnant with twins, now that's not unusual, but she has two separate uteruses with separate cervices. About 21 days, after fertilization, one of the embryos (about the size of a peanut) is "born" and crawls up and into the pouch via a path that momma licks from the vagina to the pouch. The second baby goes into "suspended animation" or diapause and ceases to grow. This baby crawling to the pouch has no eyes, no nothing other than a mouth and two almost microscopic arm buds...talk about will to live. Once inside the pouch, the baby has two nipples to choose from...one is about 1/4 the size of the baby and the other is about 3x the size the baby. The baby hooks up to the smaller nipple and remains attached to it until it "outgrows" it at which time it lets go and attaches to the the other. During the first three to four months, the baby remains permanently attached to these nipples...never letting go. Now for some important "roo milk facts", the smallest nipple produces a very specific milk to help the baby quadruple it's grown in the very first week or two of like and continues until approximately 40% of the joey's pouch life has gone by then it changes it's milk composition until the joey reaches about 60% of it's pouch life. At that time, it disconnects from the first nippe and move the longer nipple that is making a totally different recipe of milk and continues until the baby reaches a point at about 70% of it's pouch life and the milk changes again to it's final formula. When the baby leaves the pouch for good at about 9 months and start spending more and more time out of the pouch, but is still actively nursing....the second baby is born and follows the same saliva path to the short nipple, which is now producing the original recipe of milk. Talk about multi-tasking, two nipples and two totally different formulas of milk...it amazes me everytime I think about it. Following this scheme, a flyer will have 3 babies every two years. Hope you all enjoyed the info. Doc

 

[wrmitchell22]

RE: Look what I found!

so tiny and adorable! I didn't kno kangaroos came from texas, lol!

 

[Turtle Guru]

RE: Look what I found!

wow never seen that lol and you can keep pet kangaroos ???

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: Look what I found!

AW, so, so cute!

 

[Len B]

RE: Look what I found!

Thanks for the class, very educational. I think it's neat that she lets you look, and photograph.

 

[dmmj]

RE: Look what I found!

Wow simply amazing

 

[DocNezzy]

RE: Look what I found!

Did not know that about kangaroo reproduction. Very interesting!