Max redfoot clutch size?

[Turtlepete]

I'm curious what the max clutch sizes others have seen from their red foots….Last year was the first laying year for one of my red's I've raised from a hatchling, and she surprised me with a massive clutch of 9, and 4 over-all clutches that year. Tonight, she just laid a clutch of 10 eggs. She isn't a large tortoise, at about 11 inches and 10 years old. This is the biggest I've ever had from any of my females. I have a massive 14 inch female that has never laid more than 5. Another of mine typically has 5-6. There is a massive difference in the size of the eggs, though.

On the top, the 10 eggs from this female, and on the bottom, 3 eggs from another girl. You can see the huge difference. They are probably about half the size! Yet fertility/hatch rate were very good last year. There is a huge difference in the size of the babies that hatch, of course, and the smaller ones seem to take much longer to grow.
The picture was taken on an angle, so it distorts the difference a lot. The eggs on the bottom are nearly double the size.

The eggs are tiny, but it seems like an awful lot for one female. I could get 30+ eggs from this girl in a single year. Last year I believe the total was 24.

 

[tortadise]

That's a lot for sure. I've received 11. However that was from a Bolivian female. They typically have large clutches like that. But all my northerns lay 4-6 and some are very old and 13-14" in size too. Monstrous clutch for an 11". Also I could speculate perhaps she held in a clutch and laid two clutches at once? Unless she typically lays this many?

 

[N2TORTS]

Nice size clutch .....I myself just had a 9 egger. I do find however the fertility rate is usually lower with massive clutches.

 

[Turtlepete]

Kelly, I hadn't considered that possibility. But as mentioned she laid 9 eggs in one clutch earlier in the year, so this isn't the first time. Its definitely a plausible explanation though. These eggs are just so darned small, and the babies I get from them take forever to grow. As cool as the huge amounts of eggs are, I'd rather half that amount of big, vigorous babies!

 

[Turtlepete]

I'll use this opportunity to ask another question, what times of years do you guys usually obtain eggs? The past three years, I've been getting eggs strictly from late October to February. I used to get eggs throughout the year, mainly from February to August, and never used to get eggs this late in the year, but now this is the only time of year I get any! Seems entirely illogical to me that they choose to start dropping their tropical eggs when the weather is dipping into the 50's at night. The cooling weather has been their cue, as I never get eggs anymore unless there has been 50 degree weather. Very odd. The two clutches I've gotten this "season" were also laid in the middle of the day, around 3pm.
I would love to get inside a tortoise's mind and see what causes them to choose when to lay their eggs….I also used to get 2-3 females nesting on the same nights, which I thought occurred because of the moon phase or otherwise "perfect" conditions, but not so yet this year. I can't figure out what it is they've been waiting for, as one of my females had been pacing for weeks before deciding to finally lay eggs! I went so far as to improve nesting sites in all the corners and up against obstructions, where they usually nest, pulling out all the mucky soil and backfilling it with clean topsoil to make for an easy nest, but this had no effect on her.