If you have a pair of tortoises and there's a chance you may have nests, then this is what to watch for in case you didn't actually see the nest being dug:
In case it's hard for you to see what I'm talking about, in the middle of the picture is a dime-sized hole with clean edges. This is in an area behind the leopard tortoises' shed door, an area that never gets watered, and the dirt is red clay and when dry, hard as cement. So I got out my cement digger (well, actually, a large metal spoon) and gently tried to pound the dirt apart and dig it out. Here's what I found:
There were two miracle live babies on the very top of the clutch of eggs and about a dozen rotten eggs. It's really a miracle these babies were able to hatch because it was dry, and had been dry the whole incubation period. So these are Milagro 1 (the one with no spots) and Milagro 2. They will be for sale the next time Will comes to Clovis. Needless to say, these have been started the dry method (ha ha), but will soon be enconsed (spell check couldn't tell me the correct spelling for this word) in a swamp-like enclosure.
In case it's hard for you to see what I'm talking about, in the middle of the picture is a dime-sized hole with clean edges. This is in an area behind the leopard tortoises' shed door, an area that never gets watered, and the dirt is red clay and when dry, hard as cement. So I got out my cement digger (well, actually, a large metal spoon) and gently tried to pound the dirt apart and dig it out. Here's what I found:
There were two miracle live babies on the very top of the clutch of eggs and about a dozen rotten eggs. It's really a miracle these babies were able to hatch because it was dry, and had been dry the whole incubation period. So these are Milagro 1 (the one with no spots) and Milagro 2. They will be for sale the next time Will comes to Clovis. Needless to say, these have been started the dry method (ha ha), but will soon be enconsed (spell check couldn't tell me the correct spelling for this word) in a swamp-like enclosure.