Experiences with raising Kinixys

[egyptiandan64]

This is from Radiata, vol. 17 #1 2008 February

Experiences with the raising of the juveniles of several species of Kinixys

by Bernd Wolff

I have been keeping various species of the genus Kinixys for more than ten years. This period did not always see me succeeding with the husbandry and breeding of these animals. There were several setbacks in the keeping of adult and especially subadult specimens. In the present paper I would like to describe mainly my experiences with the raising of juveniles that hatched in my collection and subadult specimens representing the Kinixys belliana complex.
I obtained hatchlings of Kinixys belliana nogueyi and Kinixys spekii in the shape of offspring from adult specimens in my collection. Furthermore, I was able on various occasions to acquire two to three week old babies of Kinixys belliana belliana that originated from a ranching project in Tanzania. This propagation project was an attempt to curb the unchecked collection of specimens from the wild. Critics will now surely reply that the breeding animals used for this purpose are certainly wild caught. This is of course true enough but they produce offspring that are strictly monitored by authorities on a regular basis. In this regard they do not differ from today's many breeding groups of Testudo in human care whose founder stocks were imported from individual parts of their natural distribution range some time ago. The major difference is that the hinge-backed tortoises in Tanzania are kept within their natural distribution range and thus within their natural climatic zone. Therefore they continue to live in a near natural enviroment.
On my travels I have repeatedly witnessed first hand with how much responsibility these animals are treated. In Tanzania I also realized that school children are now being taught to an increasing extent to regard nature as something in need of conservation. The axiom of "You can only conserve what you know and value" is applied there as well.
Ranching projects in the countries of origin therefore offer, in my view, an opportunity to create public enviromental awareness. It follows that buying specimens produced by these offically controled institutions constitutes active support of their goals and should not be frowned upon.

First, some thoughts on the managing of newly hatched animals: It is common observation that hatchlings leave their eeg shells while their yolk sacs are still clearly in evidence. Various breeders will then remove these hatchlings from the incubator and keep them in a controlled enviroment until the yolk sac has disappeared. This solution brings about a risk, however, of the sensitive tissue becoming inflamed and the babies needing medical attention. Treating them requires frequent manipulation which in turn causes stress and thus eventually is often the cause of their perishing. I recommend instead that prematurely hatched babies be left in their incubator until they will have completed their development. As the point of completion I regard the presence of an insignificantly large, dried up rest of a yolk sac or, in an ideal scenario, a closed navel slit.
If the eggs were not incubated in seperate containers inside the incubator, but were placed alongside other clutches on or in the substrate, care must be taken to prevent prematurely hatched babies from shifting eggs that are still incubating. It is therefore wise to place these babies in small closed containers that are filled with the same substrate as that used for incubating their eggs. In order to provide these animals with a feeling of safety they should be left in their opened eggshells. If a hatchling with a yolk sac attached has left it's egg already, I model a depression of the size of the hatchling into the substrate, place the baby in it, and cover it with a moist sponge. The container in then closed and placed back in the incubator. If the hatchling is then not disturbed any further, it will usually just lie there and leave the depression only once it has completely resorbed it's yolk sac.
Successfully hatched babies are housed in groups of two or three in shallow plastic bowls offereing a floor space of 30 X 50cm. These bowls are furnished with a bottom substrate mix of sand, peat and beech leaves that is kept slightly moist at all times. The bowls are furthermore outfitted with some moss and several pieces of bark beneath which animals can find shelter. They are then installed in a warm room with day temperatures of around 30C and nightly values of about 22C. A week or two later, when the hatchlings begin looking for food, a small spotlight is added to warm one corner of the container. These spotlights have a maximum output of 25W and are switched on only during the morning hours. I avoid bright light, as this causes the babies to remain in their hiding places. They will typically sit under their covers and observe their surroundings. At night, they will stay in their places and just bury themselves a little deeper into the substrate.
As has been described above, I usually keep two or three hatchlings together in a container initially. This facilitates the observation of the juvenile tortoises watching each other. If one animal then leaves it's shelter because it has spotted or smelled something edible, the others will often follow and also want to eat. If this then involves live prey, squabbles may ensue with the baby tortoises snapping at the heads of their competitors. This can be observed best in obscured lighting conditions, which make the animals feel secure. Exposed to bright light, they are much more careful and very reluctant to leave their shelters.
Their food consists mainly of a wide spectrum of greens and Itry to provide plant matter that has grown in the wild as often as I can. Representatives of the genus Kinixys do not feed exclusively on greens however, as has been shown by many observations in nature. I therefore add various mushrooms, vegetables and fruit to their diet. They receive a wide variety which helps prevent their becoming focused on just a few types of food.
This captive setting provides a good opportunity to watch the hunting behaviour of juvenile hinge-backed tortoises when they encounter small, moving prey. Earthworms and insect lavae (e.g. caterpillars) are pursued in an active manner. This behaviour resembles the often-described food acquisition techniques of turtles of the genus Geoemyda. Moving prey is identified, breifly focused on, and then run down with a few rapid steps and attacked with a bite. The juvenile tortoises do not spend attention on front or rear ends of their prey but rather bite the part of the body that comes within reach first. If several juveniles target the same prey animal, biting fights may quickly ensue amongst them. These are still harmless in very young animals, as these simply do not yet have much power in their jaws. However, their squabbling often distracts them from the prey animal, letting it escape. This aspect of their behaviour is rarely notable when they feed on greens, mushrooms or fruit, though. On reaching about half a year of age, the young hinge-backed tortoises will also begin to feed on prekilled pink mice, which they are now able to tear apart with their sharp jaw sheaths.
The dietary spectrum of hatchling and juvenile Kinixys belliana and Kinixys spekii differs clearly in it's composition from the prefered food of adult specimens. Juvenile hinge-backed tortoises need an elevated content of protein in their food. This need can be covered by offering them mushrooms, vegetables and even pure animal protein. As far as mushrooms are concerned, I use the readily available white and brown common mushrooms as well as oyster mushrooms. When available, I also feed them with edible mushrooms collected from the wild. It is important that variety is offered also here so that it does not lead to the formation of a preference of certain mushrooms only. The same applies to vegetables and fruit. In this regard, every keeper should try and find out what his tortoises will eat, as there are distinct individual differences even amongst juveniles of the same species. In general, chicory, endives, romaine lettuce, seed pods, berries, pieces of apple, fig, strawberries, banana and others more are consumed with great appetite. I provide animal protein in the shape of earthworms, mealworms and giant mealworms (Zophobas) and pink mice. Owing to their substantial fat contents, I do not offer dog and cat foods.
I usually make available several of the above mentioned types of food at the same time, which induces the tortoises to eat a little of everything. The animals are thus able to decide for themselves how much of which food they want to consume at a time.

[egyptiandan64]

The juveniles receive, and eat, only greens on four subsequent days every week. As they grow older, until they reach sexual maturity, this time span is expanded to six days, with mushrooms making up part of their meals almost on a daily basis. Commercial calcium/vitamin powder is sprinkled over their food once every week. This feeding regime lets the animals grow very nicely. They do not grow too fast and their shells remain smooth. It goes without saying that all these species and subspecies receive fresh drinking water every day and that they have a partly moist bottom substrate available.
On reaching an age of approximately three months, the juveniles gradually begin to bask more often and spend more time outside their shelters. This is the time when I introduce basking spots during morning hours, consisting of commercial lamps that also emit some UV light. The young tortoises still do not like strong, bright light at this stage, though.
By the time the young hinge-backed tortoises are about half a year old, they will have doubled if not tripled their hatchling weights and usually grown to twice their length at hatching. They now need to be moved to larger enclosures that are furnished with a multitude of hiding places. These offer a floor space of between 1 and 1.5 m squared. In the early days, I usually kept groups of five or six specimens together but this kept causing problems. At an age between one and two years, it was notable that some juveniles grew faster and were stronger. Even though of the same age, their smaller siblings consumed less food, and some of them died even after they had been seperated and moved to their own enclosures. Another common phenomenon was that some juveniles would suffer from gradual shell-softening and these candidates could be saved only in exceptional cases. When their diet was changed to less protein-rich food, this unwanted effect became worse.
All this left me with one option, i.e. to keep the juveniles one by one in smaller enclosures from an age of about 6 months. I first experimented with doing just that with a few juveniles. I continued to keep some specimens of the same age in nursery groups as described above and others on an individual basis. It must be said, though, that I could not keep all tortoises in my collection and had to outsource some to other keepers.
Now, five years later, I can state with confidence that juveniles that are kept individually develop much better. The first three "test animals" have meanwhile become sexually mature and not a single specimen was lost.
Obviously, this is a small sample size of hinge-backed tortoises raised that does not permit to make generalized statements but there is a clear tendency that speaks in favour of keeping juveniles one by one. Juveniles raised thus also grew at a faster pace when compared to those kept in groups.
I am unfortunately unable to demonstrate these differences with figures of their weight gains, simply because I did not want to handle the juvenile tortoises unnecessarily. For the same reason I did not routinely bathe them either. It is my experience and that of other keepers of Kinixys that any disturbance means major bouts of stress for these animals. Thus, I regularly observed that a disturbance caused them to reduce their food intake during the weeks following such an event.

In summary I would like to state that raising juveniles of the species of Kinixys kept in my collection requires a great deal od circumspection and care. Besides a balanced and varying diet, a stress-free enviroment is of great importance for these juveniles. The latter basically translates into housing them individually and effecting as few changes to their terrarium as possible. This appears to also apply to the juveniles of other species of Kinixys.

Kinixys belliana nogueyi

2002: 5 in a group/3 died: 4 individually/none died
2004: 5 in a group/3 died: 4 individually/1 died

Kinixys belliana belliana

2003: 2 groups of 4 each/6 died: 2 individually/none died
2005: 3 in a group/2 died: 4 individually/1 died

Kinixys spekii

2005: 2 individually/none died
2006: 3 individually/1 died

I'm tired

Danny

[lonelylayla]

Originally Posted by egyptiandan64

Im tired

Danny

Don't worry, it's an age thing

On a serious note will this be a sticky? It's the sort of thing some of us may never need, but the sort of thing too that you need when you haven't got it

[FLINTUS]

This is an excellent resource. I know Mick has had problems with juvenile aggression with nogueyi, although some keepers in Germany have kept groups of 30 or so together with no problems. He is definitely right about handling and stressing, they are very much creatures of habit-my guys have a 3 day sleeping rotation, so one morning I find Oak in the leaflitter area, Toffee in the planted area by the pond, and Caramel in the area which is covered by tarpaulin so it is very dark. The next day, they all move to the next area-so Oak to plants, Toffee to dark area and Caramel to leaflitter -, and then to the next area and then they repeat the cycle. After the first two months, they have only not done this for 6 nights. However, I am not so sure the hatchling anti-social nature applies to k.homeana and erosa. Most of the ones which have been hatched have been housed in a group and have done well. They have been described as as outgoing and friendly to humans as Red Foots or Horsfields. I would say, from what I've read of breeding efforts of the forest kinixys species, female heavy groups don't work.

[Suze65]

Could you make this a sticky, I need more time to read this

[egyptiandan64]

Where it will go is in the important threads We are trying to be a tidy forum

Danny

[FLINTUS]

Originally Posted by stells

Tidy forum doesn't seem to work... Everyone including myself forgets about the important thread section... I think it may need a rethink.

I agree with you on this. Stickies were much easier.