- Joined
- Jun 13, 2010
- Messages
- 653
Does anyone know who is breeding bowsprits on a regular basis? If you are, please PM me. I have some questions.
I have been considering a bowsprit project, and in preparation for that have been talking to a number of people/institutions who have or used to have bowsprits. From what I have learned, there are a few people / institutions that have produced hatchlings, but nobody I spoke with is doing so regularly, with one potential exception. Most have stopped working with the species all-together. PM me and I will tell you what I know.
Good lord man! Share the info publicly. We all want to learn more.
Do you mind sharing if the humidity issue was too wet or dry? Need to be dry initially? Does this species benefit from a diapause?Dan and I spoke about this species not too long ago and I believe he is referring to me in some of what he's written here. Dan, you're always welcome to use my name if you'd like.
Outdoors certainly isn't the key to successful keeping of C. angulata. I keep mine strictly indoors in our tortoise building and everything from feeding to behavior and reproduction is spot on. They are in the utmost health. They lay eggs frequently too. The issue I have is during incubation. I hatched one which died shortly after and several others made it to varying stages of development before perishing within the egg. I may now have a handle on this and it may be because of humidity issues inside the container. I am getting eggs once again now (my females lay from September to April) and will continue to try new things as I have tried many methods of incubation.
I house every single Mediterranean species bred here outdoors with the exception of our T. kleinmanni and T. g. nabeulensis groups. I don't doubt that they'd do well here on the southern NJ coastal pinelands but I'm nervous to try it. This is also why don't house C. angulata outdoors. Perhaps down the line they'll all be moved out but it's simply a case of "Don't fix it if it ain't broken". These do so incredibly well indoors so I am in no rush to change it.
Friends from the Turtle Conservancy visited us this past weekend and we went over some humidity issues and maybe I'll hatch a few successfully this winter. Time will tell.
I'm not so sure they were totally off the mark. Though some do comment about their difficulty in captivity today, those that live in mediterranean climates will tell you they are hearty and a pleasure to keep. It would be interesting to look back and see if the authors you reference were keeping the tortoises themselves or writing about other keepers - and either way, where were the tortoises being kept. Back in the 90's, Andy and the Tortoise Trust were in the UK, but he often worked in Spain....now the TT is in Spain.Funny how completely off the mark so many of the old books were.
T.G.
I can tell you from first hand experience that the temps in the RSA where these come from fluctuate wildly and there were many days with oppressive humidity too. If marginata do well there, then I think these will do well there too, assuming they are carrying some disease or a heavy parasite load from the wild.I've always wanted to keep this species, but my home and indoor quarters are quite small compared to the land I have outside my house. I've always liked keeping adult tortoises outdoors as much of the time as is feasible and hatchlings part time depending upon species, and as I live in South Texas with wildly fluctuating temps and often oppressive humidity, outdoor keeping of angulata would probably be out of the question. Despite this, I've always felt that if there was a species for which I'd make an exception to my outdoor keeping rule, it would be these guys. I also think it's interesting that all the old books, whether they were the TFH books by John Coborn or the various Tortoise Trust books by Highfield, described them as hardy and easily managed in captivity. Funny how completely off the mark so many of the old books were.
T.G.