Horsefield Tortoise Breeding

[lordlottie01]

Hi and help!
I'm thinking about breeding my Horsefield Tortoise Marty in the future, he is a male, 4 year old horsefield tortoise. Do I have to hibernate him before breeding? My friends said you do, but he hasn't ever been hibernated before, (I only got him a month ago) Can anyone tell me if thats true? Thanks!
lordlottie01

 

[Tom]

In general you will get a more reliable breeding response if you hibernate. However they can reproduce without hibernation.

Be aware that what you are considering is a big undertaking. You will need to have at least two or three females to your one male, and you will need a very large enclosure, preferably outside, to do this in. If they must spend part of the year indoors in your area, you will need a very large indoor enclosure. Minimum 4x8'. All new animals will need to be quarantines for weeks or months and vet checked too.

Alternatively, you can set up two enclosures and house your female separately most of the time and just put them together for breeding occasionally.

Just plopping a female into the males enclosure will most likely lead to disaster one way or another.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Charlotte:

I think it's just way too soon to be thinking about breeding Marty. Number 1, having two Russian tortoises in the same indoor habitat is just a disaster waiting to happen. Male Russian tortoises are very aggressive towards other tortoises, male and female.

If you can get your folks to help you set up a nice, big, safe outdoor habitat for your Russian tortoise THEN you can be thinking about getting a female to put with him...but not indoors. It just doesn't work out.

But to answer your question, there are those who say tortoises need to go through their hibernation period to be in breeding condition, and then there are those who say it doesn't need to happen. In my opinion, male russian tortoises are ready to breed all the time. But then, I do hibernate my tortoises.