Nick V.
New Member
Here are a few pics of my new Burmese star tortoises I snapped with my phone, enjoy!View attachment 188801
Thanks everyone! The trio just became a group of four! Just got another TSF this morning. By the way all of them are TSF, I should start looking to get some TSM soon.
You might want to wait on that…
I got all TSF and 3 years later exactly half of them are female. Got 4 more TSF babies about 9 months ago and still waiting to see on those...
Gus got something like 9 out of 12 males, and he's not 100% on some yet. He might have even more males. Maybe he'll sell you one or two if you end up needing them. @G-stars , did I remember that correctly?
Wow I had no idea how unreliable TSD was in this species, I probably should just wait it out. In the mean time I'll just buy TSF, and I suppose a good deal of them will turn out male. I wonder why it's so unreliable, maybe breeders don't have the temps just right for TSD? At least I know I'll have two females since two of these hatchlings have split scutes..
Very interesting, I bet the diapause is definitely going to make it kind of difficult to adjust temps at the precise time that it would affect TSD during the incubation process. I knew of the diapause stage necessary in platynota incubation, it just didn't occur to me that it could affect the accuracy of the constant labeling of TSM and TSF hatchlings I see for sale. It was nothing I thought to even look into.. I also don't think that these animals should be called TSF or TSM with no studies to support any of that then. Is it just a guess that breeders have just fiddled around with then? I hope that mine aren't exceptions like your leopard with the split scutes, I guess time will tell! Hopefully I will have mostly females..
I know it's not a 100% guarantee, but I assumed that animals being advertised as such would have been known to statistically produce more females than males to make the claim TSF, doesn't seem to make sense to advertise that if that's not the case or not any evidence to support the accuracy of that claim. I'm glad you tell your customers that, when I sell my Florida box turtles I tell people that they're TSF but it just means statistically that it is more than likely going to be female.. like 9 times out of 10 with TSD. Pretty much all boxies produced with split scutes end up females, I didn't know of split scutes in these tortoises turning up male. Maybe the TSD occurs during the diapause in platynota? TSD does occur rather early on in embryonic development and that would seem to make sense. I wonder what studies may have been done on when that would occur in this species in particular, if it's right after the month of diapause or before.Generally speaking, warmer incubation temps will produce more females. Its just not an exact science, especially with store bought thermometers and incubators that are just not that precise. Even if we knew the correct temps for every species, maintaining lab-like consistent and exact temperatures would be difficult for most people.
What I tell buyers is that: "I incubated them on the warm side, so it should be mostly females, but no guarantee."
Wow I had no idea how unreliable TSD was in this species, I probably should just wait it out. In the mean time I'll just buy TSF, and I suppose a good deal of them will turn out male. I wonder why it's so unreliable, maybe breeders don't have the temps just right for TSD? At least I know I'll have two females since two of these hatchlings have split scutes..