Are mating meet ups alowed

[fajita]

I really would like for my tortoise fajita to lay some eggs and hatch some but I'm worried about the logistics of a meet up and weather or not someone in or close to my area would be willing to do this. Something else to be added I don't know if that kinda stuff is even allowed here.

 

[dmmj]

why wouldn't it be allowed? It's your tortoise. you would have to find someone in the area who has a male tortoise who wouldn't mind letting him out for stud.

 

[Tom]

The biggest problem I see with that is the lack of quarantine. New tortoises and their environments need to be quarantined for several months before allowing exposure to your other tortoises. One of my vets recommends 12 months because he has seen some real horror stories. I would not allow contact with my tortoise and someone else's.

 

[Yvonne G]

Yeah...quarantine would make it pretty much impossible.

 

[Tom]

I really would like for my tortoise fajita to lay some eggs and hatch some but I'm worried about the logistics of a meet up and weather or not someone in or close to my area would be willing to do this. Something else to be added I don't know if that kinda stuff is even allowed here.

I thought of a potential way to get around the quarantine issues…

If you find someone that has a single captive bred male, and that tortoise has had a couple of recent negative fecal checks, eats well and shows all the signs of good health, and has been living all alone with no contact with any other tortoises or tortoise enclosures, and the person only has the one tortoise, and hasn't had any other tortoises on the premises in over one year, well… effectively that is an off-site quarantine.

But as soon as the person says that they had a greek that died six months ago, or aunt Betty brings her Russian tortoise from Petco over for occasional visits, or if the person takes their tortoise to the park for "exercise", or if they keep other species or other russians in the back yard, or some other suitably disqualifying circumstance pops up, you should call it off.

Also know that generally, it will work best if the female is introduced into the males territory. Also know that russian breeding can be quite violent. Expect to see your tortoise getting bitten rammed and bullied. There may be blood and one of them might even lose an eye.

I say all of this because I think the more CB russians we have the better. Any species that is still being brought in from the wild will benefit from having more captive breeding. Eventually, I'd like to see a time where only a small number are imported.

 

[fajita]

Thankyou everyone for the responses I definitely didn't know about all the instructions and outs I really didn't know about quarantine. Maybe someone in the future from Indiana or the surrounding area will see this post and pm me.

 

[Alexio]

Not sure how serious you are about eggs or how many, but my experience is in the adult Russian tortoise world males are much easier to come by than females, most of the large box pet stores only sell Russian males. Once again not sure if you wanted to own/ houses two torts yourself but I bet you could easily acquire a male.

 

[TortoiseWarrior]

Yeah you would have to find her a good mate?

 

[RosemaryDW]

Babies are exciting, for sure.

Didn't you just recently acquire Fajita? I know you've been working hard to get her properly set up but she'll still need some time to asjust to her new home and you, too, while you become a tortoise expert! So any mating is a ways off yet?

That should give you time to work out all the requirements and possibilities.