Kinixys erosa breeding and nesting

[Medinukas]

Hello,

I'm not very active writer of this forum, but a lot of reading. It seems, the more I read, the less I understand and know.

But on everything from the beginning. I have group of kinixys erosa (1.2). All of them was imported from Ghana. Females was imported on 2013 (I got both on the same year) and male on 2007 (I got it on 2015).
Male is very active and breeding like a crazy every day. Females are not very happy because of this and try to escape from male. I think that it is not strange, because all females do the same.

Both of my females was calm and shy without any aggression. The bigger one was dominant while I had only two females. The smaller one was slowly growing then bigger one. Nothing changed between females when I got male. He became king of a group. During this year there were a lot of breeding and no signs of nesting.

On this November I decided to change enclousure of my group, which fit better for nesting. I added camera to new enclousure that I could see my group anytime. At first nothing changed. The king of group was male and females tried to escape from him on breeding. Both of females was calm and shy as always. But...

Everything was changed on 2016 11 10.

• The smaller one female became very aggressive.
• She is running around like mad.
• She is attacking everything that moves.
• She spent a lot of time in water.
• Male stop breeding and try to avoid females.
• All enclousure looks like after the war.
• I don't see any trying to dig.
• It is sad, because I didn't follow weight, so I can't say if it changed.

Don't seem, that the bigger female changed. She seems like always.

Lets start with questions:

• As I know it could be sign that female want to nest. Is it right or you have other thoughts?
• How long it takes from aggressive to eggs laying?
• I had read many different ways erosa is laying eggs, but I'm not sure if it is true (like all things in internet ). Some say that they are digging as all tortoises, some says that they are laying after leafs, other that they could laying in the bowl of water... What is your experience? Could erosa lay eggs without digging?
• In the new enclousure I made only one side for digging that it would be more easy to find eggs. Is it good decision?
• How you are looking for eggs in your enclousure? How often you do it?...
• I had read many topics about eggs incubation, but I want to hear your offers on this.

I had eggs of testudo horsfieldii before, but it was more surprising than the awaited. This time it's different, so it is very scary to miss something or to do in wrong way. For this reason I'm waiting your opinions and advice.

Thank you very much.

 

[Anyfoot]

I only have homeana not Erosa so it may be different, but they are supposedly very similar, my homeana do the exact same, the females get aggressive and clear an area out ready to nest, the males seem to go and hide for days when this happens. The gravid female will be restless and aggressive for about 3 wks. She will also go off her food a bit and drink more. The first signs of a gravid female is they eat a lot of cuttlebone then start climbing the walls.
Homeana dig about 4 to 5" deep to lay.
Not sure about the laying in water thing, that sounds like a desperate way to ditch the eggs because there is no nesting sight available, or a virgin female. One of my redfoots layed in the water her first time of laying.
Hope that helps in some way, make sure you have enough space for them to get away from each other too, I always think low lying objects give the females some rest bite from a persistent mounting male, that said my males only seem to spring into action after a good misting.