nesting 2010

[Yvonne G]

I've never used the video function on my camera before, so if this doesn't work, I apologize. Phae pooped out 5 eggs on the ground 3 days ago, 2 broke, and now she's starting to build a nest. I just dumped a couple large bags of cypress mulch in front of her site, and tried to video a bit of what she does with it. Its very dark where she is. They took a VERY LONG time to download into Photobucket. I hope it doesn't take that long for you to open them:





Sorry they're so dark. In the first one she's scraping the mulch backwards with her front feet and in the second one she's pushing it behind her with her back feet.

 

[Tom]

RE: nesting

Wow. Thanks Yvonne. I've read about this, but never seen it. Videos worked fine for me.

 

[Laura]

RE: nesting

Did you pull the eggs or leave them in the nest??

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: nesting

She's still building. They pull the dirt back with their front legs, then continue it on its way behind them by pushing it with their back feet. Once they have this huge crocodile-style mound built up, then they dig into it and lay the eggs. After covering them up, they spread out on top of the mound, all four feet hanging all over the sides, and guard it for a couple days. Once I realize there are eggs, I'll pull them.

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: nesting

Seems like Phae is finished for the night. Here's a picture of the exact spot of the video. You can see its scraped down to bare dirt and all the mulch is gone:

The horizontal board on the outside of the "house" are about 5" wide, so that makes the nest to be appx. 12" deep so far. She's got a way to go yet. I'll give her another couple bags of mulch tomorrow a.m.

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: nesting

I neglected to keep this thread updated, sorry. I have three egg-laying females. The one in this thread, Phae, then an older one, Medea, and a younger one, VicMorgan. Well, before Phae was finished with the nest, VicMorgan decided she was ready to nest. The two of them were in there for a couple days, scraping and moving substrate. A few days ago I put down the food at the feeding station and all the tortoises went to eat, so I took advantage of the vacated nest and dug into it. I found quite a few broken eggs (because of the two heavy tortoises), but was able to get 10 good ones for the incubator. But Phae wasn't finished covering up the nest. They work almost as hard AFTER laying eggs as they do building the nest in the first place. So the two girls have been in there working the nest since last week. With the male and the other female occasionally in there too.

This is VicMorgan this evening. Don't know if she has laid eggs or not.

This is the terrible sight that awaited me inside their shed this evening:

I don't know who's eggs they are, but all of them are no good. They've spent the day in the dry air and have all developed a split at the dent. Since I have Phae's eggs in the incubator and VicMorgan is still working on her nest, I'm guessing the eggs are from the oldest female, Medea. Hopefully she has a few more and she'll wait for her turn on the nest.

 

[harris]

RE: nesting

I SO hope you have success with the 10 you saved! It would be nice to see some "fresh" Manouria coming out of California. If they were emys emys, I'd be the first in line! I'll be anxious to follow this thread throughout.

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, I must admit (hoping not to jinx myself) that I'm feeling pretty lucky this year. I THINK (read "hope") that this year I'm gonna' end up with some Manouria emys phayrei babies!

To update: There were some Phae eggs in the incubator, however, every day I have to toss one or two that turned no good. Since that time, around the second week of July, VicMorgan, my youngest Mep, has been working the nest. Unless you stay there and watch them all the time, you have no idea when the eggs happen, because after they've dug down into the nest and deposit the eggs, they cover the hole, then continue to go out into the yard and scrape substrate back onto the nest...for days, even weeks. I have no idea when she laid her eggs, but this a.m. she was headed off out into the "rain forest" and far away from the nest, so I dug into it.

Because of all the activity on the nest due to the other tortoises and the small space, when I finally got down to the eggs, there were quite a few broken ones. I ended up with 19 good ones and she had originally deposited 29 eggs in the nest. The cavity that held the eggs contained very firm and packed-together substrate. She had pee'd on it so it would pack down around the eggs. So, my incubator this a.m. is plumb full!!! Fingers crossed!

I posted a picture of the eggs that were pooped out overnight inside the shed...well, those were from Medea, the oldest and wild caught female. During that time, she was acting VERY studly. She was chasing all the other tortoises that live in this habitat, vocalizing and grunting. When she finally caught up with one, she would mount her or him, mouth agape and vocalize like males do during mating. Several times during the past couple weeks, I've had to turn tortoises back right side up. She has just been a holy terror! She's really gotten her signals crossed. Now that the nest has been vacated, I'm hoping she will switch over from male to female mode and deposit the rest of her eggs in the nest. So far I've only found about 15 of her eggs around the habitat, so she's got quite a few left inside of her.

 

[dmmj]

here's hoping they hatch, maybe the eggs on top were a decoy to distract you?

 

[Stephanie Logan]

I posted a picture of the eggs that were pooped out overnight inside the shed...well, those were from Medea, the oldest and wild caught female. During that time, she was acting VERY studly. She was chasing all the other tortoises that live in this habitat, vocalizing and grunting. When she finally caught up with one, she would mount her or him, mouth agape and vocalize like males do during mating. Several times during the past couple weeks, I've had to turn tortoises back right side up. She has just been a holy terror! She's really gotten her signals crossed. Now that the nest has been vacated, I'm hoping she will switch over from male to female mode and deposit the rest of her eggs in the nest. So far I've only found about 15 of her eggs around the habitat, so she's got quite a few left inside of her.

Wow, those must be some pretty strong hormones! Maybe she's menopausal at the same time she's in the nesting zone...sounds like everyone better stay out of her way for awhile.

You must feel like an archeologist, Yvonne, when you have to dig through that huge nest to gently unearth an unknown number of tortoise eggs from packed substrate...does it take you a long time to do it?

 

[Yvonne G]

You must feel like an archeologist, Yvonne, when you have to dig through that huge nest to gently unearth an unknown number of tortoise eggs from packed substrate...does it take you a long time to do it?

Yes, because the eggs are pretty fragile and they break easily.