Fat Betty laid eggs!!!

[Yvonne G]

A couple weeks ago I was "giving the tour" and as we walked by the Russian pen, we espied Fat Betty digging a nest.

Later in the day I dug into the nest and recovered 5 eggs. One of them was cracked. They're very big eggs. Here's a comparison picture of the leopard egg on top of the bin with the Russian eggs inside:

 

[ascott]

They do look big...and now the count down begins...lol

 

[dmmj]

Let's hope they hatch. Good luck.

 

[68merc]

My Russian eggs look big too. But I have nothing to compare them to.

 

[GBtortoises]

Congratulations Yvonne. My Russian's eggs are always noticebly larger than any other Testudo species that I have. I think that is typical. They seem to be even larger when fewer are laid. This is particularly true when done so by one of the larger females. Any Russian tortoises that I have hatched here have always been considerably larger than any other baby tortoise of the same age. One would have to assume that the larger birth size from a smaller species of tortoise probably has to do with survivability in the wild.

 

[Tom]

Wow those are big. Now we know why "Fat Betty" was so fat.

If they hatch, I want some babies. Keep us posted.

GB (or anybody else too), what is the typical hatch weight for a Russian?