Tiny giant...

biochemnerd808

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Life has been too busy to post much, but I thought you would enjoy seeing this.
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Here is one of my "giant" baby RTs, hatched at 24g in September. At just over 6 months, she weighs 164g, and is rock solid.
Her Momma is exceptionally big at 9" and 1800g, and this was the pretiest baby from 1 of 3 equally-sized big eggs.
I decided to hang onto this beauty (her clutch mates already have wonderful new homes), to see how big she gets (and how quickly), in comparison to the other hatches that are from more normal sized females I have. Her name is Pickles, because she gets into a lot of mischief.

Then, because of the extra cute factor, here is our daughter "helping" watch Pickles. I had just hosed down all the tortoises, and she joined in the fun.
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She is being very good about looking, but not touching. Our daughter "helps" feed the tortoises by throwing handfuls of grass and dandelion flowers into the tortoise yard. (I'm always with her, and only tortoise safe plants grow in that part... so... no danger of her throwing in harmful plants).

Anyway... hopefully this made you smile! (Since so many of my previous posts tell you what to do or not to do... I figured it was time for a good old normal non-bossy just for fun post).
:)
 

Yvonne G

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That's a very pretty little tortoise. I hope you keep us in the loop as she grows
 

Tom

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164 at 6 months. Wow. That is a tiny giant. Looks great!

I had big sulcatas when my daughter was that age. She was able to take a more "hands on" approach with our tortoises… :)
 

biochemnerd808

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Her clutch mates are growing at the same rate, so it does seem to have a genetic factor. The babies of my other females are usually 50-80g at this age.

Our kids do get to be a bit more hands-on with the adult tortoises, though I still don't let them carry them. I do feel proud when my 5 year old correctly identifies tortoise edible weeds outside, or when my 9 year old comes home from school with a baggy of tortoise safe weeds he picked on his walk home, assuring me they are from areas I pick from thst aren't sprayed...

164 at 6 months. Wow. That is a tiny giant. Looks great!

I had big sulcatas when my daughter was that age. She was able to take a more "hands on" approach with our tortoises… :)
 

Tom

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Her clutch mates are growing at the same rate, so it does seem to have a genetic factor. The babies of my other females are usually 50-80g at this age.
.

The 6 babies I got from Melissa, grew at nearly twice the rate of the 6 babies I got from Carol. Identical enclosures in the same room and identical side-by-side enclosures outside in warmer weather. Same temps, lighting, food, soaking and sunning routine. Everything identical. All the babies were very well started and hydrated with similar routines for each breeder too.

There must be a genetic component.
 
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