My Herman is laying eggs!

[Penny Feasey]

Some advise please, woke up yesterday to find an egg sitting in with our two tortoises, after taking some advise from the local reptile centre, we moved the egg into a poly box and set of today and bought an incubator.

Having set the incubator to 30 degrees I have now rested the egg in a dish set on cotton wool to keep it stable! And placed a container of water in there too....

She has since laid another and I have placed this one in a separate container in the incubator...

On returning to the tortoises she is now laying very still in the soft soil

Questions:

Have I done the incubator correctly?
Should I separate her from the male who keeps climbing on her?
Should I cover the eggs as suggested by the reptile Center?


Please please help first time mum!!

 

[Pokeymeg]

How exciting!!! My male Hermann doesn't have a lady friend yet, so I haven't dealt with this yet - I'm sure someone will be along soon to give you answers!

I'm not a breeding expert, but I would say YES to separating the male from her for now!

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Congrats!!! Not to rain on your parade - but if the eggs were laid on top of the soil (not in any kind of nest) they often are not fertile. But this isn't always true - I have had some hatch from time to time so treating them as fertile eggs is good. I keep my eggs on moist vermiculite with a dish of water in the incubator. I've never know anyone to use cotton to put the eggs on, but I don't see why it would be a problem. I don't cover my tortoise eggs (only the turtle eggs.) I also don't separate my male from the females, but if he's bothering her - you can. Good luck to you and the eggs!!!

 

[Penny Feasey]

Thank you so much! She is still acting strange today and is very hungry, how long will she labour for? The reptile centre said 2 weeks!!! That seems an awful long time, Is this correct??

 

[kimber_lee_314]

No, she should have laid all of them by now. If she is acting listless and not eating, she might be egg bound. She should be acting in her normal fashion.