All things Red Foot Tortoise
Red Foot Tortoises​
Outline
As of the creation of this document, there is only one recognized species of Red foot tortoises, named Chelonoidis carbonarius. There are no recognized sub-species within this group, but numerous different and distinct locals are observable. These local's breed true for these animals, having the offspring directly represent certain and desirable characteristics the parent's display.
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We produce two types of chelonoidis carbonarius. The first is the Brazilian Cherry Head Red Foot and the Second is the Guyana Red Foot Tortoises. Additional locals are from Venezuelan Red Foots, Bolivian Red Foots, Suriname Red Foots and Columbian Red Foots.
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Most of the Red Foot's produced in captivity and readily available on the market are from Valenzuela, Suriname and Columbia.
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The Brazilian Cherry Head Tortoises​
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The Brazilian local of Red Foots are one of the smallest South American tortoises, only second to chelonoidis chilensis. They are also one of the most colorful of the Red Foot Tortoise group. This coloration is how these small animals gained the common name of Cherry Head Tortoises.
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Brazilian Cherry Head Tortoises first came into the US in the early 2000's. Groups strictly were imported from local farms in Brazil. Instantly, when looking at these babies, you can see the differences in the Brazilian Cherry Head Tortoises versus the Red Foot Tortoises.
Coloration & Characteristics
The Brazilian Cherry Head Tortoises is recognized as one of the most colorful of the Red Foot Tortoises.
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These little tortoises come in two vibrant colorations on the face, neck, arms, legs and tail. One is their very common form of solid and pure red, and the other is a deep orange and red.
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In our group of Cherry Head Tortoises, the animals with orange and red coloration on their head all have dark brown, almost black eye colors. For our group, the tortoises which have a red head and red appendages have bright yellow colored eyes or the really dark brown eyes. This is only a notation for our animals, something of interest we see throughout the generations. A characteristic we see directly from parent to offspring.
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Another key component to the Cherry Heads is their marbled carapace. This is the characteristic we breed for. An extreme marbled Cherry Head Tortoises will have two different marble patterns, a blotchy black and white marble pattern versus a striated softer contrasting pattern. The blotchy pattern will actually look a similar look to the leopard tortoise pattern and look nearly painted on. It is highly contrasted. Considering these animals come from the deep and dense forests of Brazil, one could understand how beneficial this pattern can be. It matches very closely to the shadow and contrast of the forest floor. The striated pattern almost has a sunburst pattern on their shells, very soft toned. These striations grow perpendicular from the center of each scute. Our sunburst coloration is also where we see some of our hypomelanistic babies.
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Cherry Heads have a distinct black plastron pattern, one of the easiest ways to see if you have a Cherry Head Tortoise, or just a very nice-looking Red Foot Tortoise.
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A lot of the coloration that is seen on these red-faced Red Foot babies they will grow out of. Red faced red foots turn to orange and yellows.
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Comparatively, the Cherry Head Tortoise will keep their coloration and become more red as they age.
The orange versus the deep reds. Which is your favorite?
Honeysuckle (left) has deep orange Cranberry (right) has deep red
This is one of our original female Cherry Head Tortoises, named Cranberry.
She produces the consistent high marbled babies in the blotchy form. Out of all of our females, she also has the most red on her face.
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Sunburst is one of our striated female Cherry Head Tortoises. She has a light brown shell pattern in comparison to the other darker colors we see in the blotchy marbled form.
This female produced the majority of our Hypomelanistic babies.​​
Why is it so important to understand what local you have?
To understand why it is so important true Cherry Head Tortoises are sold as such?
Consumers deserve to understand what animal they have. Our Guyana Red Foot Tortoises and Cherry Head Tortoises are very different in personality, coloration and size.
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A Brazilian Cherry Head Tortoise will only reach a max size of 8 – inches to 10 – inches. There is no length differentiation between males and females.
There are a couple gender specific characteristics we look at for Cherry Head Tortoises.
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The plastron for males will have a distinct concavity. The females will have a nearly flat, almost bowed plastron.
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The shape of the rear plastron near the vent area has a distinct shape between males and females. This shape is one of the first sexual characteristics we can see. Some of our males have shown the distinct masculine V shape once they reach 2-inches in length. This marginal shape is one of the more reliable ways to differentiate the gender of your tortoise.
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The tip of the nose is blunt and very rounded for females. Males have a distinct button and bulbous nose shape.
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Once the Cherry Head Tortoise reaches sexual maturity, the males will have a head nearly double the size of a female cherry head with the same general shell size.
This is the female on the left at 1-year old
The female will have a perfect Bell-shape on the rear of the plastron.
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This is a female with a blunt nose tip
The Male is on the right at 1-year old
The male with have a V-shape on the rear of the plastron.
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​This is a male with a bulbous nose tip
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Behavior
The Cherry Head Tortoises is an extremely intelligent forest tortoise. How do we record intelligence? Through habits and pattern recognition.
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We believe this intelligence is due to the fact these animals will eat protein and have to actually hunt for their foot. They have an incredible sense of smell, and when an extremely desirous food item is found, both males and females are observed ‘talking’ and communicating what they found to their group. There is a different between breeding grunts and this ‘oink’. It is a closed mouth deep throat grunt.
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These Cherry Head Tortoises have a deep connection to their chosen groups. When introducing a new tortoise into the group, the tortoise should e a similar size and weight. Usually, there is a dominant female in the group which keeps all he other females safe. If you introduce this female to the potential new comer, she has to accept them. It takes a while for them to adjust to the new mate (each group is a different time frame). You may see some behavior like shell to shell pining of the tortoises, and the dominant female attempting to flip over the other female. Ramming and chasing them around is also common.
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We always intervein in this when we see this behavior. We take the dominant female and put her in ‘time out’, meaning we put her on the opposite side of the cage, so she has to go out of her way to get at them again. Eventually she gets tired. One of the main reasons we always introduce new animals which are the same weight as our dominant female is because it makes it harder for her to flip them upside down. Size is a big deterrent, and so is stability. The nice thing about the species is that they are both communicative and bold little tortoises.
Guyana Red Foot Tortoises​
Outline
As of the creation of this document, there is only one recognized species of Red foot tortoises, named Chelonoidis carbonarius. There are no recognized sub-species within this group, but numerous different and distinct locals are observable. These local's breed true for these animals, having the offspring directly represent certain and desirable characteristics the parent's display.
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We produce two types of chelonoidis carbonarius. The first is the Brazilian Cherry Head Red Foot and the Second is the Guyana Red Foot Tortoises. Additional locals are from Venezuelan Red Foots, Bolivian Red Foots, Suriname Red Foots and Columbian Red Foots.
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Most of the Red Foot's produced in captivity and readily available on the market are from Valenzuela, Suriname and Columbia.
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Color & Characteristics
The Red foot tortoises is a large species of tropical tortoises. These animals can reach a good size and weight. Although some of the red foot locals can stay small in comparison, the male Guyana red foot tortoises will be between 14-inches and 16-inches long. Comparatively, the female Guyana Red foot tortoises will reach a similar size but be much heavier than the males will be.
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The Male red foot tortoise is distinguishable due to the specific characteristics they have. Males will have a longer tail, and a pronounced hourglass shape. Males will also have a deeply concaved plastron to mount the females shell securely. Males tend to have larger head shapes when compared to others of the same species, local and relative size.
Male Guyana red foot tortoises will have a much more striking color pattern in comparison to the female Guyana red foot tortoises. Males will usually have orange and yellow faces, with blight red legs, arms, tail and the scaled skin around their tail. These tortoise shells are usually brown or black in coloration.
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Female Guyana Red Foot Tortoises will have a very round shell in comparison and be very dense or heavy. They will have a dimmed coloration in comparison to the males, and a much more delicate head structure.
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When Guyana red foot tortoises are hatching size, the babies will tend to have a tan or brown plastron, being the main differentiation between the Brazilian Cherry Head local versus the Red foots. Red foot tortoises may hatch out with a striking amount of red and orange on their face, but they rarely keep the coloration and will lose it after substantial growth occurs. Another interesting pattern we see in our baby red foots is a high amount of orange and yellow on the carapace with a modeled orange and yellow blotch for each scute. Red foot tortoises will eventually grow out of that coloration pattern too.
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Behavior
The Guyana Red Foot Tortoise is another very intelligent species.
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Our colony of Red Foot Tortoises have been found to be very selective on who they breed and coexist with. It is to the point where we cannot introduce any new animals to their group unless it is their same local.
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These animals also have a way of communicating with their chosen group. When you place a high value food item in the enclosure, usually one will run to it immediately to investigate and then proceed to make noise to alert the others of what they find. It is a low closed mouth grunt.
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The Red Foot species of tortoises is also known for their amazing sense of smell. If its high value food or even fresh water being splashed into their ponds, they usually know while we are in their enclosures still working on putting their food out of changing and washing out their waters.
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Comparatively, we have found our red foot tortoises to be one of the species which love to be scratched the most. Either by raking your nails down the back on their shell or by water pressure from the hose. Red Foot Tortoises are very commonly seen standing up as tall as they can get and moving their back sides in a wiggle like dance side to side.
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Overall red foot tortoises are a very personable tortoise. They have bold personalities, they know what they like and don't like, and they are constantly busy.