Last years clutch vs this years clutch

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
Last year I hatched out my first ever Sri Lankan star torts. My female laid three eggs. One was infertile the other two hatched. This year two females laid a total of seven clutches. And so far 12 out of 12 eggs have hatched with 6 more incubating. It's been an amazing year to say the least. 1 year olds on the left. 2 week to 2 month olds on the right. image.jpg
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Looks like someone has it figured out! Congrats.
 

GRohr

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
Messages
89
Fantastic! What is your incubating process that you are currently using? I am always looking to see how other people do their setups and compare to my own for stars. What incubator do you use, what humidity and temperature is it set at? what substrate are the eggs sitting on and the water ratio? Then the last question I have is how long have they taken to hatch with this last group? Thanks!
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
Thank you all very much. To answer a few of the questions... I have four females and one male. I have been looking for another adult male for several years now with no luck. I live in Hawaii and Sri Lankan stars are not easy to come by over here without dealing with shipping and animal quarantine inspection. I was lucky to purchase my five adults as babies over the span of 7-9 years ago from different breeders. It was a much easier and cheaper process to ship them here back then. As for incubation methods I'll try to explain as best I can as to how i do it. First off I do not have any type of name brand or fancy incubator. I have a plastic storage bin that I use. I put a few holes for ventilation on each side. For the medium I use sphagnum moss which I mix with water until it feels moist but not wet. I don't have any specific ratio I use. I place eggs on the dirt/moss and place the tub in a closet in my back room. For heat I use a standard 60 watt light bulb in a clamp lamp suspended over the storage bin. I have one for day time and one for night so I don't over heat the lamps. I check the temps 3-4 times per day. Temps range from 84-90 degrees with this method. I check the soil everyday as well to make sure it doesn't get too dry. If it feels dry I spray/mist water around the edges of the perimeter to keep soil from drying out and keep humidity up. This years clutches have hatched at 103-114 days of incubation. I don't have a humidity gauge. I only have a standard thermometer to keep,track of temperature. I live in Hawaii so humidity is always high. when I incubate eggs I go mostly by a feeling I have. Like does it feel too hot or does the dirt feel too wet. It's hard to explain but it has worked out really well for me. I have had much success with sulcatas using the same method. I will try to post pics of my setup if that might help. And I hope my answers weren't too confusing lol.
 

pete55

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
61
Congratulations on your excellent results, well deserved success after maintaing your breeding group for all those years. Your babies look awesome. Picfures of your adults and setup would be great :):)
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
image.jpg image.jpg
A few photos of my "incubator" I usually have a clamp lamp suspended above the incubator but it's been so hot down here lately that just the regular heat from the lamp has been enough.
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg
Adults. First pic is my five adults. Male is the small guy on bottom left. Second pic is my male and the two mothers of this years hatchlings. Last pic is a view from my patio looking out into their enclosure.
 

G-stars

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
Messages
1,889
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California

GRohr

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
Messages
89
Great looking group and thank you for the pictures! We are in New Mexico so you always have to plan ahead when dealing with humidity, we are so dry here! Thank you for answering my questions!
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
Thank you for the compliments and you are welcome for answering the questions. My largest female is just a tad over 8 inches. My male is 5 inches SCL
 

pete55

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
61
This is a very interesting and informative thread, thank you for posting. Enjoyed seeing your setup and nice to see your Sri Lankans outside. I'm sure your climate suits them very well.

Lovely looking group and nice pictures of the parents. You should be very proud of your results. I see there's some variation in the babies with some showing early development of thickers rays than others. Have you noticed variation even when they're from the same mother?
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
I have not noticed much difference in thicker rays from different mothers. They all seem to come out random. However there is a noticeable size difference in the hatchlings from one mother to the next. Hatchlings from one female were much bigger than hatchlings from my first female. The eggs were bigger as well. That was the only difference I noticed between the two. Oh and one female laid four clutches and the other laid three. Clutches were laid almost exactly 30 days apart each time. It was like clockwork. And amazing to watch.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Thank you for sharing all this info with us. This has been a great thread.

Congrats on your success.
 

Tidgy's Dad

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
48,236
Location (City and/or State)
Fes, Morocco
Lovely photos and a very informative and interesting thread!
Thanks for posting!!:)
 

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Would you say the increased success is due to simply the adults maturing or have you changed your husbandry in any way that would explain the increase in success?
 

mlocke45

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
14
I think it was just a matter of my adults maturing. i have four females and only two have laid eggs even though they are all around the same age. And I have seen my male mating with all of them at some point or another but I guess only the two were ready this year. I haven't changed my husbandry in any way since they were old enough to be outside all the time unless of course there was a heavy forecast of rain or if temps were gonna be too cold at night. I usually bring them into my patio at night which is enclosed and protected from weather elements. I think the success is just due to a combination of a great natural type of enclosure(they literally have my entire back yard all to themselves), and a great temperature environment for where I live. Not too cold not too hot not too wet. Also dedication to just overall good care and health of the animals. i make sure I know exactly where my animals are every night before I go to sleep just in case it starts raining hard I will literally wake up at 200 in the morning to get them from outside and bring them in. And also I think there is a certain element of luck involved. i have always hoped that one day my stars would reproduce successfully. Never did I imagine that it would be to this level. I would've been happy if just one hatched...so far 12 out of 12 have hatched. It is unbelievable.
If anyone has any questions that they would like to ask I have no problem answering them. Feel free to email me because there can never be enough information shared between star tortoise owners. When I first started 9 years ago there was such a limited amount of info. I'm grateful for the people that have helped me out in the past and would love to return the help.
 

New Posts

Top