Does a female KNOW when she is bred successfully?

[SulcatAZer]

... just wondering. I introduced my smaller 44-lb male, to my 60-lb female. After a couple of head-butts by the male, the afternoon delight began, and she mostly remained stable. I finally pried him away in the evening. A couple of days later, I let him in her pen again.
Of course he went straight for her, as persistent as ever -- but she quickly turned on him, and just rolled him across the pen until slamming him against a barrier. He comes back for more, she gets him sideways -- and rolls him again and again.

Ok, so this is obvious rejection.
My other experience, say with llamas, is that a female will reject the male when she "knows". This was like a one-night stand, and now she says "don't call me"!

 

[wellington]

Lol, don't think there is a way to know the answer 100%. However, the best guess is no, they don't know. Tortoises can carry sperm for years. It varies from species to species. If it were true, they would only alllw one breeding within so many years.

 

[SulcatAZer]

thanks, but more background needed. She had been sharing the pen with a 30-lb female for several weeks, and without any incident between them. But after moving the smaller female back in, after the breeding event, the big female began attacking her also. I was suspicious of her abruptly becoming so territorial. And yesterday, she began digging. FYI, the tryst was back on Valentines day. The others have shown no need to dig yet, and my setup is quite good. I contacted the previous owner, and this female last laid a clutch (correct term?) about 3 years ago, and had not seen a male since that time. So it seems she took advantage of the male encounter, and then has wanted to be left Alone. Or maybe some hormone changes after an insemination have changed her behavior? In captivity she cannot just take off, so instead she is protecting her space? -- sure seems that way. I have not begun digging to look for eggs, and may just leave them be... and start a countdown.

 

[Tom]

No I don't think they do "know".

They are an aggressive species, and your female is telling the male to get out of her territory because she is larger and she can.

 

[SulcatAZer]

Yes of course, and she is indeed larger than both of the others. But then again, she ignored the other female for weeks together -- until after she was bred. So whether consciously or not, her behavior has changed. My setup was fine with 2 separate areas before, but now I am working on the 3rd!... yep I had the male separated before, but now he is pestering the smaller female too much.