Chitra chitra breeding and husbandry

To have a successful breeding percentage of the Chitra chitra a two male to six female grouping would be idealistic. The breeding pond for Chitra chitras should be 60 foot by 40 foot and the depth should be 3 foot down to 6 foot in inclination .The bottom should be of proper gravel without mud and should be filled to about 1.5 foot in depth. The sides of the breeding pond should be high enough to prevent the turtle from climbing over. There should be an extra land area of 20 foot by 40 foot in order for the female turtle to come up to land and lay her eggs. The breeding land area should have another inclination upwards from 2 to 5 foot in a systematic wavelike area like a slope upwards.

When the turtle is ready she will climb ashore to her specific spot and by using her left or right forelimbs dig a hole about a foot apart . As the turtle lays her eggs in the dugged nest, the eggs layed are in a systematical layered process. After the eggs are layed, she will use her forelimbs to cover them with sand. She will lay in between 60 to 150 eggs at a time depending on the size of the turtle itself.

Eggs will take about 60 to 70 days to incubate at a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. Eggs will remain brittle for the first 30 days then becomes soft. Eggs size varies between 2.5cm to 4cm.Successful rate of hatchlings is around 80% after incubation.If the eggs do not hatch after 75 days it is considered unfertilized.

Chitraology

The Chitra chitra starts its live from an egg and when hatched is only a few grams and is about 3cm to 5cm in carapace length. It grows very quickly and in about a month can achieve a length of 5cm to 7.5cm if fed properly. They will continue to grow fast and in a year can weigh up to 1.5kilos.An adult Chitra chitra can weigh 180 to 200 kilos and can have a carapace length of 6 foot or more according to records and also have a width of 5 foot. They can be all rounded or have a slightly elongated carapace and their great difference from other soft shell turtles is their boldly striped and irregular markings on their carapace which no other turtles have.

IUCN protected, these turtles are now very difficult to find in the wild especially in Malaysia or it might have already been extinct because we have no news of them from tribesman or anyone since 1995.The Chitra chitra is exclusive to Thailand and Malaysia but these turtles have hardly been bred commercially. We have only came across another breeder from Thailand but his statistics are less than a hundred hatchlings.

Hatchlings of Chitra indicas from Pakistan/Bangladesh and India have been reportedly sold in Japanese Pet Shops and in Europe or in the US. These turtles have yet to be proven that they are captive bred or they might have just been wild caught or captive hatched ,whose eggs are taken from the wild to be incubated and then sold. If this process is true then it will bring in a toll of extinction on the close genre of the Chitra chitra.

We should discourage the buying of any wild caught IUCN/CITES turtles or tortoises as this would bring about the end of these fragile animals. Captive bred turtles are the best solution to prevent these turtles from going extinct and it is also better in terms of health and conditions.

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