I don't think theres anything diferent from mixing meds (I.e breeding an ibera and a horsefield) to mixing desert species (i.e Breeding a leopard to a sulcata tortoise or tropicals,(Ie breeding a cherry head to a yellowfoot) its just as bad, and shouldnt be messed with IMO.

They wouldn't be bred like this in the wild, and many problems arise through cross-breeding.

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Josh

www.tortoise-world.com

Tina thanks for the welcome ,

Most redfoots available don't reach the sizes often read about and cherrys are small in the red world with little difference to an adult mediterranean spurthigh(testudo graeca Ibera).

Guyanas reds are also small and reach about 11 inches as adults , Sarah keeps Guyanas if she see this she will post a picture I;m sure,

Mine on the other hand are of the large Brazilian type in region they are heavy rather than large being 12-17lb in weigh and 14-16 inches as adults in length,so when chooseing a red if possible its best to try and see the parents and hopefully have an idea to what size as adult theywill attain and possibly region can be determined, unfortunately though most reds are classed as redfoots and many keepers just have a mixed group so often size isn't really determined until the animal has grown.
I have found that many reds of different region run together often refuse to mate females that aren't there own locality females one reason I suspect that even though many keepers have adult groups of redfoots they are often unsuccessful in producing many viable eggs

Reds do take a long time to grow to there full size my adult females are 3 sisters 45 yrs old and became sexually reproductive at the grand age of 35 so maturity is often slow.

I'm glad you have settled with a hermans they are grand tortoises .

D

Josh what I was saying is that many people don't understand the importance of redfoot purity and mix sub varieties together and know one says anything , but if I where to mix two different locality Mediterranean spurthighs for instance Testudo graeca of north african origin for example a Libyian and a Morocan then there would be hell to play.

D

Oh no... now you've said some only reach 11" I'm going to start prevaricating all over again! Especially as red foots were the ones I originally fell in love with. Would I have huge difficulty finding a UK CB Guyana?

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Not at all Tina Sarah has eggs in the incubator as we speak all fertile I believe.

D

Here are my red foots my adult male is 12 inches and my adult female 11 inches.
Yes i do have eggs in the incubator.

It also drives me mad that more research has not been done into red foots.

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Yours are so lovely Sarah I've seen the pics of your recent hatchlings on SW which are incredibly cute. When are your eggs due to hatch and what age would you sell them at?

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They are due end of March begining of april. Id say a few months after that, if i dare part with any lol

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I did wonder if you would. I was going to breed leo's at one point then decided against it because I'd have just kept them all.

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Oh, I can't really comment because of my lack of tropical knowledge, but I do agree with you on the fact they shouldn't be cross-bred whatever species they are.

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Josh

www.tortoise-world.com