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Posted by Miss_Marbles on May 02, 2003 at 00:23:21:
In Reply to: indian star tortoise, pattern deformity? posted by superstarreptile on April 30, 2003 at 08:43:09:
This tort has extra scutes, and it's really no big deal.. it should be considered an irregularity, not a deformity, and it certainly will NOT affect the health of the animal. I've seen & had quite a number of tortoises over the years with extra scutes, some captive-bred and some wild-caught, and have never seen the slightest difference in health or vigor between them and tortoises with normal scutes. There is SOME theorizing that extra scutes may be caused by excessively-high temperatures in incubating eggs (which certainly can happen in the wild as well as in an incubator), and that because of that, most tortoises with extra scutes may be female. I will say that every one I've had or have seen has been female.
A few weeks ago I saw a clutch of nice active Leopard babies in which a number of them had extra scutes, so I intentionally bought them .. just to raise them up & see if they turn out female. I also got a couple of their normal clutch-mates, and all feed like demons.
Perfect scutes are one of those "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" things.. I don't find looking at extra scutes a problem, and would pay a normal price for such a tortoise if it were healthy & vigorous. I imagine that when selling one, one could ask for a bit less, since the shell is not "perfect", unless a species is very rare and otherwise unobtainable.
I haven't seen anyone prove that extra scutes are inherited.. in any event, I wouldn't let this trait stop me from buying a tortoise.
:I have a 2 inch indian star tortoise for sale, it seems to have a pattern deformity. I have never seen this sort of thing before. The animal seems to be healthy and seems to be in no way disadvantaged by this, but I would like to know if this would raise or lower the value of the tortoise?
:More pictures can be seen of this animal(code: 004)on the below link under "for sale":
