The red-cheek mud turtle, Kinosternon scorpioides cruentatum, occurs from eastern Mexico down through the Yucatan Peninsula and south to about Honduras. Most that are being maintained in the United States in recent years (decades) are reportedly from Guatemalan imports.
I am currently maintaining a particular female that was supposedly wild caught in, or near Vera Cruz, Mexico.
No way to confirm this of course, but I tend to believe the source.
Anyway, these are some images I took right after I acquired her early this year.
Her head had some really nice red color to it and the ground color of her skin was a rather steely gray.
Notice that she had a spot or two of shell rot on the rear lobe of her plastron right on the anal scute/femoral scute seam. I treated this accordingly...
In the intervening months she has proved to be a typically hardy tropical mud turtle although unlike captive hatched and raised red-cheeks, she has remained rather shy. In addition, she is very flighty when held and instead of remaining passive like my others, she tends to be a bit spastic. Still, a very nice animal.
She's had a good summer of growth and her color has become really beautiful too.
I also like the yellow color around her jaws...a pretty female!
You can see from this plastron photo (just taken) that the shell rot has healed nicely and new growth has occurred.
Although there are some populations of red-cheeks that are clearly different from what most of us here in the U.S. are used to seeing, this female seems only slightly so to me. She does appear to be of a smaller and slighter build than my other cruentatum, but this could of course mean nothing.
Regardless, she is one of my favorites.
I am currently maintaining a particular female that was supposedly wild caught in, or near Vera Cruz, Mexico.
No way to confirm this of course, but I tend to believe the source.
Anyway, these are some images I took right after I acquired her early this year.
Her head had some really nice red color to it and the ground color of her skin was a rather steely gray.
Notice that she had a spot or two of shell rot on the rear lobe of her plastron right on the anal scute/femoral scute seam. I treated this accordingly...
In the intervening months she has proved to be a typically hardy tropical mud turtle although unlike captive hatched and raised red-cheeks, she has remained rather shy. In addition, she is very flighty when held and instead of remaining passive like my others, she tends to be a bit spastic. Still, a very nice animal.
She's had a good summer of growth and her color has become really beautiful too.
I also like the yellow color around her jaws...a pretty female!
You can see from this plastron photo (just taken) that the shell rot has healed nicely and new growth has occurred.
Although there are some populations of red-cheeks that are clearly different from what most of us here in the U.S. are used to seeing, this female seems only slightly so to me. She does appear to be of a smaller and slighter build than my other cruentatum, but this could of course mean nothing.
Regardless, she is one of my favorites.