My tort is nesting. Can I interrupt her?

[shellysmom]

While I was letting Daisy have a romp around the property, she dug a nest and is now laying eggs. The problem is, it's about to get dark here, and I don't want to leave her out overnight, but I also don't want to interrupt her laying if she's right in the middle of it... I've never had a female tort before, so I don't know if it can hurt them by interrupting their nesting, i.e., cause them to become egg-bound or something? I guess I could set up a puppy gate around her and check on her often so I can put her back in her garden when she's done if it's after dark???

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Shoot. She's right under a fence rail, so I can't pen her, but I saw several eggs in the nest, so hopefully she's almost done...

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OK, never mind, she's done. I just went out with a flashlight and she was covering them up, so I figured it was safe to move her back to her garden. The interesting thing is, she's been pacing the fenceline in her enclosure the last couple of days, which is really unlike her. So, today I let her loose to wander around a bit. Bless her heart, she was just looking for a place to lay her eggs!! She picked a really soft, sandy, muddy spot. What a good tortie mama. She hasn't been with a male since I've had her, though, so I'll probably get rid of the eggs. Weird question, but has anyone ever cooked infertile tort eggs and given them to their dogs? Would that be too strange?

 

[N2TORTS]

Your RF may nest ( dig ) several times before she actually lays eggs.
They tend to start digging in the afternoons and finish up night time. ( although this is not always the case or the golden rule) . Rain seems to stimulate them as well. ( and makes since sense naturally would soften the ground. ) DO NOT ASSUME you have infertile eggs. Tortoises have the capability of "sperm retention" and can produce viable eggs , year-s ( I don’t think there has been a detailed study on just how long the sperm can be stored and still viable to fertilize the egg) later without being with a male . So DON'T toss your eggs .... you never know ...if a small clutch and young female , chances are they are
"bunkers” .... but a good sign of a healthy female.
***A helpful note..... regardless of what you do with your eggs ( yes I have fed them to dogs, birds, other herps even tried one myself ! ) make sure within the next couple weeks you "Beef up" - give extra calcium to the tort who laid . The easiest way is thru dusting thier food ....
Egg laying takes a lot of calcium from the female which in turn needs to be replaced. This will also help for later clutches down the road and overall better health for your tortoise.

Good Luck !
JD~ :shy:

PS ~ .. I always try and NOT disturb the female while "in the process" seems stressful enough ...... don’t ya think ?

 

[shellysmom]

Your RF may nest ( dig ) several times before she actually lays eggs.
They tend to start digging in the afternoons and finish up night time. ( although this is not always the case or the golden rule) . Rain seems to stimulate them as well. ( and makes since sense naturally would soften the ground. ) DO NOT ASSUME you have infertile eggs. Tortoises have the capability of "sperm retention" and can produce viable eggs , year-s ( I don’t think there has been a detailed study on just how long the sperm can be stored and still viable to fertilize the egg) later without being with a male . So DON'T toss your eggs .... you never know ...if a small clutch and young female , chances are they are
"bunkers” .... but a good sign of a healthy female.
***A helpful note..... regardless of what you do with your eggs ( yes I have fed them to dogs, birds, other herps even tried one myself ! ) make sure within the next couple weeks you "Beef up" - give extra calcium to the tort who laid . The easiest way is thru dusting thier food ....
Egg laying takes a lot of calcium from the female which in turn needs to be replaced. This will also help for later clutches down the road and overall better health for your tortoise.

Good Luck !
JD~ :shy:

PS ~ .. I always try and NOT disturb the female while "in the process" seems stressful enough ...... don’t ya think ?

Thanks for the great info, JD. You are right on the money. She started to dig a couple of little nests when I first got her, but she didn't lay. It has been pretty dry here for the last few weeks, but it rained all day yesterday, and all day today, and that's when the pacing started.

While the eggs are super-cute, and I did have momentary visions of adorable tiny Daisy torts running around, I really don't want them to hatch. My specialty is in rescuing deformed sulcatas, not breeding redfoots. I'll leave that up to you.

I will definitely take your advice and up the calcium. And I'm really glad I didn't have to interrupt her, although I'm sure checking on her every 5 minutes with a flashlight asking, "Are you done yet?" does actually count as interruption. When I picked her up as she was covering the nest, her little legs kept moving in circles, like she was still working on it, lol. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[N2TORTS]

Erika ... ya sound like the puuuurrrfect Grand Ma ...( wink) .....anyhow whatever you do enjoy your happy momma ... Keep her warm is another key factor ...Even in So. Cal right now , where I live it's too cold at night for healthy , productive RF's if left outside too late to lay or just plain roam the yard. ... but for myself, with large enough enclosures and Nest boxes within the " hut's " I have been able to produce year round. A long lesson and experimenting for sure. And your right .... it never gets old ... and is ALWAYS "trying" on the nerves ... the time frame kills ya along with the anticipation ....and did I mention a lot of work ?
But sure beats the heck out of the daily stressors , watching such a beautiful thing take place .
"Happy Tort~N"
JD