Recent content by cdmay

That little one has exceptional marbling even for a Brazilian. As has been said, the lighter areas of the shell usually darken with age—and especially exposure to sunlight. But some individuals retain the light/dark marbling into adulthood. Nitro may be one of the exceptions. Time will tell.

Like some of the others I had one of these 35+ years ago and they arrived in the US in terrible shape. Shell rot, stumped tails and the like. Mine did pretty well and ate like a champ. I cleared up the shell rot and the tail healed cleanly, but I was clearly keeping it too warm. Eventually I...

Old male Reeves turtle

As a caveat, I will stress that Buddy LOOKS like a young male. But it ain’t a guarantee

Nice red-cheeks. Ignis is a female . Buddy looks to be a young male. Females tend to have plain orange or yellow plastrons....while male typically have dark markings on theirs. Buddy's tail should grow much bigger this year. Happens fast, you'll see

Great photo! I like the intricate pattern that many cruentatum have on their heads, makes you want to have a bunch of them.

Both cruentatum and albigulare are nice animals. But cruentatum is a good bit smaller, has more color (usually) and is more readily available for U.S. hobbyists. Still, captive hatched and raised albigulare, that is known as the white-throated mud turtle btw, can be gorgeous turtles. They are...

Yep, my thoughts as well.

That second animal is cruentatum all the way.

Nice animal. Hard to say from her face. Here is a cool resource....go to inaturalist.org Once you access that site, enter Kinosternon scorpioides cruentatum in the species box and click VIEW. You will then find a bunch of photos of wild specimens, click on VIEW OBSERVATION and the exact GPS...

The size and upturned plastron seam say albogulare. Think of a smile shaped seam. Albogulare tend to have higher domed shells and slightly more pronounced dorsal keels as well. Their faces do have some red or orange colors but not like the cruentatum that are currently in the United States...

Old trooper for sure. But not an old fossil. His shell is worn, but I cannot see any active shell rot. Time and wear, nothing else. Treat for shell rot prophylacticly by dry docking and applying fungal cream for jock itch...a couple days at a time, then clean off residual cream afterwards...

Northern type red-footed tortoise. Anomalies to the dorsal scutes. Otherwise, just fine.

I’m working three days a week (actually more) at the same job I’ve been at for 29 years. Doing way less of the physical work, of course. But I still have full insurance which is like gold these days. Recuperating from total shoulder replacement as I write this...one handed. Good grief, trying...

Ha! I’m semi-retired—you old geezer I recommend super tight hygienic quarantine measures and to move very slowly on acquisitions. Be careful not to pollute the group you already have time invested in.