# Hermann female never laid eggs



## Hermanshermits (Aug 12, 2020)

Hello.

My gf has 2 Hermann's tortoises born in 2006. One female and one smaller male. The female has never laid an egg despite being old enough and big enough. 

Should we be worried that she's egg bound?


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## qiangzhu (Aug 13, 2020)

Do they ever mate? Do you see the male ever mount on the female's back and mate?


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## Tom (Aug 13, 2020)

Tortoises should never live as a pair. The stress of this could be part of the problem.

Could also be that the sexes are misidentified. This happens a lot.

If the tortoise was egg bound, it would have died by now. An x-ray is an easy way to check fo this.


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## Hermanshermits (Aug 13, 2020)

qiangzhu said:


> Do they ever mate? Do you see the male ever mount on the female's back and mate?


The male does attempt to mate quite often.


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## Hermanshermits (Aug 13, 2020)

Tom said:


> Tortoises should never live as a pair. The stress of this could be part of the problem.
> 
> Could also be that the sexes are misidentified. This happens a lot.
> 
> If the tortoise was egg bound, it would have died by now. An x-ray is an easy way to check fo this.


And getting an x-ray was next on my list. Thanks for the reply.


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## Minority2 (Aug 14, 2020)

Hermanshermits said:


> The male does attempt to mate quite often.



A male tortoises is going to keep attempting to bite, hurt, and force his way into mating with a female tortoise until either she hurts him physically enough to permanently back off or until one of them dies as a result of either the ongoing "courtship" which is something no tortoise keeper wants.

Male tortoises would constantly bash their little members into a female's shell and continue to do so long after parts of the shell in that area breaks. Picture that type of aggression and imagine how sad it is for the female for not being able to escape if she's continually forced to be housed together with her attacker/forced-mate.


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## Hermanshermits (Aug 14, 2020)

We will be splitting them up in the garden with a physical barrier and their enclosures are seperate.


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## qiangzhu (Aug 14, 2020)

Minority2 said:


> A male tortoises is going to keep attempting to bite, hurt, and force his way into mating with a female tortoise until either she hurts him physically enough to permanently back off or until one of them dies as a result of either the ongoing "courtship" which is something no tortoise keeper wants.
> 
> Male tortoises would constantly bash their little members into a female's shell and continue to do so long after parts of the shell in that area breaks. Picture that type of aggression and imagine how sad it is for the female for not being able to escape if she's continually forced to be housed together with her attacker/forced-mate.


I have a male and female. The male is very gentle and never bite the female but the female always tries to push and bite the male. I separate them


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