New AZ member with interest in Hermanns

[Jsoluent]

Hi, I am Judy from the Phoenix area. I have six Hermanns, a trio that I have had for at least 12 years, two females I bought about five years ago and a young female I bought last summer. Up until last summer, I had had no more than four babies in a season. Last summer I found 17 babies! So far this year, I have had only two babies hatch. This is in spite of my blonder tort laying six eggs earlier this summer and another laying two. And those were only the ones I saw being laid. I think weather has a lot to do with my low yield this year. I put two eggs in a incubator Aug 12. This will be my first attempt at incubation. My quandry right now is that Blondie laid six eggs this morning! Do I incubate them or not?

I think I have uploaded a picture of my torts. One is missing from the picture. Can you guess which one I call Blondie?

I have been lurking on this website for a while and am glad that I have decided to join. It seems very friendly!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hi, Judy, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum to you and all your beautiful Hermann's.
Even with my rubbishy guessing, i've a good idea which ones Blondie!
(unless she's the one not in the picture!)
Can't help with your incubation question, let's ask @HermanniChris
Hopefully, he'll have some advice for you.

 

[HermanniChris]

Hi Judy, welcome. When you ask if you should incubate them I'm not sure I understand why you're asking that. Can you elaborate?

Beautiful tortoises and it looks as though you have 2 different types or subspecies of Hermann's. From the looks of it you have at least 2 Dalmatian Hermann's in the mix but if you post some plastron photos I can tell you for sure.

Chris

 

[Jsoluent]

I am honored to be communicating with the Hermann master himself! I have been all over your website, especially how to feed hermanns.

I am referring to incubating the eggs artificially, as opposed to leaving them in the ground. My hatch rate has been so low this year as compared to last year. However, I am uncomfortable with incubating artificially although I do have two eggs in the incubator right now as sort of a test run. All three thermometers are giving me different readings. About a two degree variation. I guess I am asking opinions as to which method I should risk the eggs to in order to get live offsprings. Especially since I am a novice at artificial incubation.

I will take plastron pictures tomorrow and post them. I had no idea I had two subspecies. I am not a fan of cross breeding or whatever that would be considered. I admire your efforts to keep the strains pure. I am very grateful to you for your input.

Another thing I have observed this summer is that literally nine times out of ten, my male is chasing or mounting Blondie. I only occasionally see him with another female. Any thoughts on this. It just may be anecdotal evidence that blondes do have more fun!

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond. Judy

 

[Jsoluent]

Tidgy's dad: thanks for the warm welcome. And, by the way, I love your avatar. Is that you in the picture?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Tidgy's dad: thanks for the warm welcome. And, by the way, I love your avatar. Is that you in the picture?

ha de ha.
No, some Victorian gentleman, I believe.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello Judy

It's nice to have a nother member that knows 1955 isn't a tire size !

 

[HermanniChris]

Wow thanks Judy!

Definitely post some photos and I'll know what you have.

As for incubating. I don't know what you'll be typically experiencing for the next 60 days or more as far as weather is concerned so I can't really say much on the ground incubation method. Artificially it's rather simple and with this species, fluctuation is ok as long as it's within a few degrees. In nature they experience fluctuation sometimes greatly. At night it can drop significantly and then shoot back up during the day. Placement of nest and area selection manipulates this greatly.
Placing the eggs in Deli containers with Totally dry vermiculite is best with a bowl of water next to them. We literally have 100% success in hatching fertile eggs this way. The eggs are never sprayed directly with water until just before they are due to hatch. This mimics fall rains which the eggs are timed to hatch during in nature usually. Temperature is according to subspecies but generally 82 to 88.9 is acceptable and safe for them unless we were discussing the western subspecies which can handle slightly higher temps.

As for your male choosing blondie, that's because of her size. It's a proven fact that many male Hermann's tortoises will always choose the larger females in the group to mate with. Not all do this but a very high degree of them do.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the Forum, Judy!

 

[Speedy-1]

Hi and welcome Judy !

 

[Jsoluent]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and making this a friendly place to interact with people who like tortoises as much as me. Thank you Chris for the time and attention you have taken with me.

Here are the pictures you requested from me to identify my tortoise's subspecies. For simplicity sake, I have sent a separate email for each tortoise with an identifying name. CHIP

 

[Jsoluent]

BLONDIE

 

[Jsoluent]

GIANT GIRL

 

[Jsoluent]

NOT CHIP

 

[Jsoluent]

BOY

 

[Jsoluent]

JUVENILE FEMALE

 

[Jsoluent]

I just noticed BOY is wrong pictures. REVISED BOY.

 

[Carol S]

Welcome to the Forum.