EGGS....nm false alarm

[jasso2]

y havent my russian had eggs yet! i have 5 female (sub-adult - adult) and 4 males (sub-adult - adult) but mostly 7+ yrs. there pen is huge and with plently of place to lay eggs and yet havent had any. i know alot of yall are have breed tortoises so is there a secret? i seen like 2 guys tryin to mount the female but them again i only watch them for about an hr out of 24 hrs a day. should i buy little candles and play some song music for them?

 

[egyptiandan]

In your signature you say you have 5 males, 4 females and 1 unknown sex. How big are your females? Females need to be at least 5.5 inches to lay eggs and males need to be close to 5 inches.

Danny

 

[Jacqui]

Like Danny says, size tend to be a big factor. Of course you hear of females who are big, but not laying. So as they say, size isn't everything.

Sometimes I believe they just need to settle in and be comfortable. The female needs to be ready to lay eggs and maybe something just isn't completely to her liking, so she waits a bit. Maybe the males are young and just not really getting the job done.

For some folks, they can go out and buy a pair come home and within a month have eggs. Lucky them. Then there are those of us, who take years before we get results.

I have had Russians for several years. They took a few years to simply do some growing. Early last year a Russian breeder/friend gave me a trio of breeding size females who had not yet laid eggs and an old male. I then had five females entering breeding size, but an elderly male and a still too small male. So no breeding took place.

Meanwhile I bought a new male and had another tortoise friend give me her lone male. Of the three males one immediately after his quarantine was chasing the girls. Took him a while to do more then learning mounts. Once they were placed outside, the newest male suddenly decided to get in on the action. My original male, well still see nothing happening with him.

I then worried how with my outside pen I would never find any nests any how. This weekend I moved all the Russians back inside, so my husband and I could work on covering their enclosures. Last night as I am putting them back outside. I noticed one was nesting. She laid two eggs. Patience does pay off.

 

[jasso2]

cool. oh yea danny i been meaning to change my signature. its 4.5 now ( the unknown turned out to be a female) and i gave 1 male away because he was too mean to the others. but they are all the right size except for the one unknown now female russian. guess i need to be more relaxed and let them do it at their pace. thanks guy.

 

[Redfootedboxturtles]

Do russians need to hibernate to stimulate breeding?

 

[egyptiandan]

A cooling period does help with getting males and females ready for breeding, but it's been done without doing that.
I hate to say , but you might have given away the male that would have done the breeding. Males that want to breed are very aggressive with the females and other males. It's very hard to keep more than 2 males together as they fight constantly.

Danny

 

[jasso2]

Do russians need to hibernate to stimulate breeding?

well i heard u have higher chances of breed if they hibernate but its been done without many times from what ive heard. i dont even know how to hibernate them. any thread on that or website? and danny yea i think you're right but he was way too crazy he was tryin to kill them. these guys are all cool with each other. maybe in another yr almost i caught 3 different males mounted on females but not completely right. maybe next time.

 

[Jacqui]

Do russians need to hibernate to stimulate breeding?

No they don't. Mine just laid with no hibernation. A local breeder noticed no difference from when she was hibernating them or not, so she has pretty much stopped hibernating them.