First of all I want to express my disclaimer as speaking only for myself and I hold no animosity towards any poster or their opinion. I know horse and dog breeders have a much much larger investment to protect in raising their pets. As for myself, I think the term “breeder” is kind of a vague application to many amateurs such as myself. The torts kind of handle the breeding themselves just at a smaller scale than nature. I’m not cross breeding to get “designer” colors like some snake and lizard breeders. Female torts lay eggs whether fertile or not. I just dig up egg nests and incubate them before the raccoons get to them. The females are documented as to how many and when eggs are laid to be sure of no egg binding (never has happened to me) and to date the eggs for incubation time. I usually raise 40 to 50 hatchlings per year and have had only 1 with zigzag scutes in the last 5 years all incubated in the same 2 incubators. Can’t believe it’s a temp thing and not just genetics.
