[Plastron]

Hi,

I'll be a proud owner of a Star in a month or so and I was wondering if someone could help me diffentiate between the types of Stars. Descriptive pictures would be good.
Can a general Star Tortoise care sheet be used for all types?

[Millerlite]

There are 2 different types of stars, well kinda 3 but 2 major.

There are

Midland star
Sri Lanken star
burmese star.

The midland star and sri lanken are mostly the same, i know there are slight differences but mostly the same. Burmese are different and rare, i dont think that the star would be a burmese unless its expensive.

PS< do your research stars can be tough to keep, they need exact care and right set up, also needs good diet. Im sure you will do good but do your research, stars arnt the easiest torts. in the world, but with a lot of homework can be quite simple. They also are somewhat shy, so when you first get him/her dont hold it a lot let it adapt, as they are shy tortoises compared to most.

[Plastron]

From now until I actually get one, I'll be doing loads of research and asking you guys of course...

[cass]

Sri Lankan Star (1st pic)

Sri Lankan stars are a very beautiful tortoise to have in a collection or for breeding purposes. They have much better contrasting fine color, and cleaner pattern than the Indian stars. Sri Lankan stars are still under the same species of Latin as the Indian star. I believe and so do many more that the sub species Sri Lankan needs to have its own species recognized. Personally the Sri Lankan star has a definite gene differential than that of the Indian star. The Sri Lankan star naturally gets smooth shell and pyramided shell leading to a genetic versatility of the genetic differences between the Indian and Sri Lankan. They both have same requirements of care but do get different sizes.


Indian Star Tortoise (pic with 2 star tort)

The Indian star has a very unique pattern over its shell and its plastron. The entire tortoise displays a beautiful portrayal of nature’s natural form of art. The Indian star tortoise is sadly used in a lot of medicinal practices where it originates in regions of India, Nepal, far western Burma, and Pakistan. This has led to a ban of exportation and making it illegal in the countries it is found to possess, touch, or harm these tortoises. However the governments lack in evasive action toward this law given a frown upon the idea of such a bogus law some say. I believe nature works best when non disturbed and taken out of place therefore we should conserve them and repopulate them. This beautiful animal is one of my favorites they have quite a personal attitude, they are shy at times and friendly at others.

Burmese Star Tortoise (the bottom pic)

Of all tortoises characterised by the highly distinctive ‘star' or ‘radiating' patterns on their carapace, the Burmese star tortoise is perhaps the rarest and most beautiful (4). The dark brown to black, domed carapace is marked with up to six radiating yellow stripes emerging from small, yellow, central areas, creating the ‘star' pattern that gives the tortoise its unique appearance. The underside of the shell (plastron) is yellow, with each scute having a dark brown or black ‘notch'. Skin on the head, limbs and tail is also yellow to tan, with large, pointed to rounded scales on the front of the forelimbs. A large, horny scale also appears at the end of the tail, with males being distinguished from females by their much longer and thicker tails.

Most probably, mine is an indian star tort i think.

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This post has been edited by cass: 25 September 2006 - 12:05 AM

[Plastron]

Thanks cass~! Correct me if I'm wrong...Burmese are more yellow? Can we differentiate for hatchlings?

[Plastron]

Ok ok...I'm still a bit confused. How can you tell the type of Star if it's just a hatchling. Are there any specific markings I should look for?
If someone could post a few pics of the plastrons of different types that would be great. Is there also a way to judge the sex of a hatchling?

The reason why I'm asking this is because a pet store claims to be selling Burmese Star hatchlings and I would like to be sure.

[LisaD]

Here you go:

http://www.tortoiset...es/elegans.html

This ought to help differentiate between Stars for you.

[Plastron]

Thanks Lisa...but that was one of the first site I went to but no pictures to differentiate hatchlings...

[LisaD]

True that and it can help in the future too.

[cass]

Hi plastron, its true indeed that burmese star torts tend to be more yellow on their skin, unlike indian star torts which are partially grey on their hands,legs and noses area. However, its tougher to differentiate their species while they are still hatchlings. You can only notice a slight difference between them. Below is one of the burmese star tort pic which i have collected over the net. As you can see, the FIRST pic is BURMESE star hatchling which appears to be more yellowish, whereas the rest are indian star torts. In fact, i do possesse one of these little sweet darlings as well. You have pick the right tort as pet coz they are really fun to raise! Good luck with yourself star torts!

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This post has been edited by cass: 25 September 2006 - 11:18 PM

[Plastron]

Ok...I think I've got it now. Anyway, can a female tortoise have eggs even with no males arounds thus having no copulation at all? I mean like chickens lay eggs no matter copulated or not, but fertile when copulated.

[cass]

Plastron, on Sep 28 2006, 02:13 PM, said:

Ok...I think I've got it now. Anyway, can a female tortoise have eggs even with no males arounds thus having no copulation at all? I mean like chickens lay eggs no matter copulated or not, but fertile when copulated.

i don't think so coz once the eggs are out, u can expect it to be fertile already. Its quite impossible for the eggs to be laid without themselves being fertile initially. Well, at least my female star tort dun do tat. Plz remind me if im wrong.

This post has been edited by cass: 28 September 2006 - 12:11 AM

[cass]

there u go~ star torts hatchlings!

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This post has been edited by cass: 06 October 2006 - 09:30 PM

[cass]

and their plastrons~

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[Plastron]

WOW~! How many do you have? Are they like really cheap in Singapore?

[cass]

i had 2 initially but one died and hence i bought more babies but i had to give them away to my neighbours due to space constraint.. yes perhaps its kind of cheap here since i bought them for only $35 each- that is $17 plus in US dollars. how about ya? how much did u buy them for?

[Plastron]

We get them here for about RM80~90. Pretty expensive if you ask me... I've heard that at one time the price dropped to RM40~! I wish I bought a Star Tortoise back then...If you take into account the conversion rate, the price you bought yours for is just about right in Malaysian ringgit.