PAA growth rates & questions (bleeding from the plastral hinge)?

turtlesteve

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First, an update on my 4 PAA:
group.jpg
They all became active in May of this year and are growing nicely. I kept measurements for the 2013 growth season and weight gain was as follows (for a 9 month period Feb-Nov).

1. 79 to 145g
2. 64 to 103g
3. 66 to 108g
4. 55 to 109g

Now, a couple questions for other keepers:

1. When I examined the largest two, the site of the plastron hinge was bleeding a little bit. See below (blood dried so it's not red anymore):
1 plastron.jpg

Has anyone seen this before? The plastron is just barely mobile so I am wondering if this is related to the formation of the hinge.

2) None of the four have shown any sign of developing a large tail so far - is it safe to say at this point that they are female? Weights are currently 112 to 160g, 3.2 to 3.7 inches.

Thanks,
Steve P.
 

kimber_lee_314

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I've never seen this before. Check with Tim/Robin. They have a lot of experience with these beauties.
 

tortadise

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I have seen this before in a couple specimens I kept back in 2007 that I raised up. The best I could observe and in talking with veterinary friends of mine is that, the animal could possibly being showing signs of more blood flow to the immediate area as the hinge develops. It's hard to explain kinda. But basically it almost naturally become septic and blood flows to this area to expedite a sensitive area as the hinge is developed. White and red blood cells are first to react in anatomical issues. I never noticed anything after that summer and the animals(2 in the collection of 12) exhibited this. The others were much smaller and not aged enough to develop the hinge so I never noticed this in the other specimens.

Hope I made some sort of sense of this.
 

Tim/Robin

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In all the little ones I have had around here I have never had any do this.
 
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