Where have the Erosa gone?

Bambam1989

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Where was this image posted?

I have 7.8 K. erosa. I've posted a few pictures, they seem to be willing to mate all the time rain or no rain. No eggs yet. I got them about a year ago. All show active growth. Mine eat chopped lettuce butts, squash (winter and summer types), cactus, apple, banana, chopped microwave eggs, hibiscus leaves and flowers, sweet potato, green beans, cauliflower and broccoli stalks, and I give them layer crumbles soaked in cold brewed hibiscus water. I do give them mushrooms too, but keep it limited, mushrooms have a horrible C: P ratio and no matter whatever special digestion things they may or may not have, they need calcium.

The temps of the enclosure range from the mid 70'sF to high 80'sF. There is one T5 HO light at one end of a 2 x 4 foot enclosure, they don't seem to seek out higher light at all. I've gone to the room they are in at night and when it is pretty much total darkness they are eating, walking around, mating etc. I have a two inch deep water tray 24 x 18 Inches and they may sit in it for many hours a day. I use several inches of cypress mulch and they will shimmy into it so that they sit in water in a small depression in the cypress. The whole enclose has overflow drain, so I flood it with many gallons of water frequently, not as rain but right out of a hose onto the cypress. They come and stick their face in the hose water, sometime drinking but mostly seeming to just like it.

The group all came in one importation so I am pretty sure they represent just one population, they are all wild caught. Chris Mannis at Dalton State University has an active reproducing group for a STEM program there.
When offering green beans do you steam them first?
Do you provide any night time temperature drop?

I believe I read the thread from when you got them, most of them had tether holes if I remember. They were lovely specimens!
I came across an online news article from Dalton State University talking about his success with them, but it didn't go into detail on his methods.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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When offering green beans do you steam them first?
Do you provide any night time temperature drop?

I believe I read the thread from when you got them, most of them had tether holes if I remember. They were lovely specimens!
I came across an online news article from Dalton State University talking about his success with them, but it didn't go into detail on his methods.

Night time drop is just an ambient drop based on the whole room, it may get as low as the high 60'sF. I buy bags or organic blue lake frozen green beans and thaw them, and chop them into lengths from 1/8 inch to about an inch. A few times I did not chop them, and they start eating at one end and choke it down. I lost an erosa long ago to similar behavior, so I chop them.
 

Pearly

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I had adult groups of 3.5 animals of both species and didn't notice any overly aggressive behavior in either of the species. It should be noted that I kept them in very large enclosures so they were not crowded together in any way. Both groups were fresh imports when I got them. I only kept them for about a year or so. I was convinced to trade them for some Spider Tortoises before any eggs were laid, although I did have breeding activity take place several times (usually during or right after it had rained).

View attachment 236016 View attachment 236017 View attachment 236016 View attachment 236017

Omg! What a beautiful tortoise!!!!
 

Anyfoot

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@Jacqui. Where is the thread on your hingeback enclosure. I can’t find it anywhere. Must have been a ‘mans look’ that Dawn keeps telling me about.
 

2turtletom

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Yes, the Homeana and Erosa sound like the type of torts that are amazing to watch and observe.
I have been doing quite a bit of research on different tortoise species, especially the ones from Africa. So far, the hingebacks have been the most fascinating to me (Homeana and Erosa in particular!)
If everything goes as expected, in about 2 years I hope to begin breeding one or two types of tortoises. During this time I plan on researching and learning as much as i possible can.
So ANY and ALL info on these guys is greatly appreciated including good reference materials that I can read[emoji1]

Have you used Google Scholar to do your Kinixys research? There are many great articles that have been published this decade and Google Scholar is a great way to find them.
 

Bambam1989

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Have you used Google Scholar to do your Kinixys research? There are many great articles that have been published this decade and Google Scholar is a great way to find them.
Thank you. I will definitely look into that.
 

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