Breeding Question

[Sweetness_bug]

My brother has a female russian...who is 8 inches. and he just purchased a male russian who is about 6 inches. he has done the quarintine thing for about a month and decided to try to put them together to see if they would possibly mate...The female bit the male twice before he took them apart...is this normal for russian torts? Does this mena they like eachother? any suggestions?

 

[moswen]

ya if the male was chasing the female around she may have had a few choice things to say about that... a good way to look at it is that females really don't like to breed, they just get pestered so much by the male that they "give in," however sometimes even when they give in they keep their tails down so the male can't actually get anywhere....

russians are also territorial i've read, are you sure the female is really a female? and you might want to tell your brother that a 1.1 ratio really isn't ideal, the male will constantly be pestering the female as female torts are always "in season" and there can be some very harmful physical and mental results from this constant badgering by the male. it may be a good idea to keep them separated and only introduce them for a day or so in order to mate, then separate them again. and keep lots of plants or other items in there so that the female can hide behind some visual barriers to get away from the male once in a while. or he could buy another female or two. a 1.3 ratio is pretty ideal.

but good job for trying to reproduce russians! they are still wild caught, so any captive born babies will reduce the amount of wild caughts being imported! i'm happy to hear this! and i really do wish him the best of luck!

 

[Sweetness_bug]

thanks For the advise. I got him into tortoises since he liked mine so much but were both pretty new at this. I myself have never tried to breed. So any info on this subject is much appreciated !