Sometimes You Need To Turn Them Over And Look

Len B

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When my female yellow footed tortoise started laying eggs I decided to purchase a young male for future breeding.Even though he was much smaller than her they got along fine. Not to long after getting the young male an old friend died and I adopted his tortoises. One was an adult male red foot that had been living with a larger sulcata (Sylvia), Anyway do to the time of year and lack of space for winter housing the male red foot went in with the yellow foots for the winter. Everything went fine, so I just kept them together. Last week when the temps started getting colder I moved them inside, but this winter I had set them up separated with the red foot alone and the pair of yellow foots together. The male yellow foot acted aggitaded and restless, The next day I soaked them and the male yellow foot passed a couple small rocksPicture 030 yellowpebbles.jpg I didn't think they were a big deal, but planned to soak him again in a couple days, He still didn't seem comfortable, Then I caught him doing thisPicture 028 yellow.jpg I know you can't tell what "she" is doing in a still photo, but "she" is working her back feet to beat the band. No eggs yet, but this explains all the eggs I found in the outside pen after moving them back inside. I thought the older female was just laying a lot of eggs. It never entered my mind that he was a female, but I never turned him over to check as he matured either.
 

leigti

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I don't know anything about red flats and yellow foot so sorry for the stupid question,can they interbreed and if so what do you call them?what do they look like?
 

naturalman91

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I don't know anything about red flats and yellow foot so sorry for the stupid question,can they interbreed and if so what do you call them?what do they look like?

they can it's just not common or wanted really it's very rare when they interbreed even tho they are some what of a cousin species they have different mating ritual's
 

leigti

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Okay, like I said I don't know much about them so I wasn't sure if that was considered crossbreeding or not. I figured it was but I wasn't sure.
 

tortdad

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Red and yellow foots are the same species so breeding is not "crops breeding". They are not even considered different sub species. You have 4 or 5 different regions (Colombia, Brazil, ect ect) and you have northern and southern verities but they are all the same species or tortoise. Any true breeder will keep the sections separate as to only breed a Colombian with a Colombian but it's not like he just bread a Redfoot with a Russian.

What will it look like??? Most likely a dull colored Redfoot that show some physical characteristics of both regions. If you sell the babies you won't get very much for them and breeders won't want them at all. I say you won't get much for them but that only if the person who buys them knows what they are looking at. It's still a Redfoot after all.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)
 

Yvonne G

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Maybe the same family (Geochelone), but not the same species. RF is G. carbonaria and YF is G. denticulata. The resultant babies would be considered intergrades.

I think your little YF is absolutely beautiful. What a perfect shell. So, did he...er...uh...she lay any eggs?
 

naturalman91

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This is probably a little off topic but why don't we see more yellow foots here? Are they more rare? Just wondering.

i've wondered this myself and the funny thing was i was really interested in a yellow foot before getting my red i don't know many members that have them that i've seen
Red and yellow foots are the same species so breeding is not "crops breeding". They are not even considered different sub species. You have 4 or 5 different regions (Colombia, Brazil, ect ect) and you have northern and southern verities but they are all the same species or tortoise. Any true breeder will keep the sections separate as to only breed a Colombian with a Colombian but it's not like he just bread a Redfoot with a Russian.

What will it look like??? Most likely a dull colored Redfoot that show some physical characteristics of both regions. If you sell the babies you won't get very much for them and breeders won't want them at all. I say you won't get much for them but that only if the person who buys them knows what they are looking at. It's still a Redfoot after all.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

yvonne hit it head on you are right tho breeder's wouldn't want them but someone will there are ton's of people interested in the "unusual" or "rare"

i seen on a site i can't remember where and i never dealt with them that claimed to have red/yellow mix babies they also said they had leopardcata's like sulcata x leopard mix so obviously they're are people out there that like the odd balls
 

stojanovski92113

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I've also wondered the same thing...it appears that many do not have yellows. I have stated that on threads a while back. All I know is that I have never seen a yellow foot at a pet store ever!!!! Which I'm surprised! A yellow is on my list, just not any time soon. And then I will be complete with my footed family of tortoises :) I think yellows are just as beautiful as reds! They are simply gorgeous tortoises!!
 

puffy137

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When my female yellow footed tortoise started laying eggs I decided to purchase a young male for future breeding.Even though he was much smaller than her they got along fine. Not to long after getting the young male an old friend died and I adopted his tortoises. One was an adult male red foot that had been living with a larger sulcata (Sylvia), Anyway do to the time of year and lack of space for winter housing the male red foot went in with the yellow foots for the winter. Everything went fine, so I just kept them together. Last week when the temps started getting colder I moved them inside, but this winter I had set them up separated with the red foot alone and the pair of yellow foots together. The male yellow foot acted aggitaded and restless, The next day I soaked them and the male yellow foot passed a couple small rocksView attachment 101243 I didn't think they were a big deal, but planned to soak him again in a couple days, He still didn't seem comfortable, Then I caught him doing thisView attachment 101245 I know you can't tell what "she" is doing in a still photo, but "she" is working her back feet to beat the band. No eggs yet, but this explains all the eggs I found in the outside pen after moving them back inside. I thought the older female was just laying a lot of eggs. It never entered my mind that he was a female, but I never turned him over to check
I am having similar confusion with a tort called Reeva. She was once called Rival , because the dominant male chased her for months & months , but her plastron is concave, so I thought she was a male & that Ceasar was just being aggressive. But as she was always passive I changed her name to Reeva. After I added coconut oil to them all , suddenly Rival\ Reeva became as aggressive with Caesar as he had been with her. Now they take it in turns chasing each other round the paddock. Shall I send them to Michelle Bachman for treatment ???:rolleyes::confused:o_Oo_Oo_O
 
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