Russian Breeding

[tylerfitz420]

I have 1 male and 3 large females Russians and need to know-how long should the male be kept with the females for breeding purposes? I have a large outside enclosure with plenty of places for the females to escape and hide.
All the females have laid eggs before . Females are 15 years old and the other 2 are about 10. The male is also about 10 years old and about 7 inchs. Thanks in advance.
Debbie

 

[Tom]

This will vary greatly. Some people just let them live together full time, while others put them together for a few day or a few hours. People using either method seem to both succeed and fail at getting babies. Russians seem to be sort of hit or miss this way.

 

[Yvonne G]

My Russian yard is appx. 16'x30', and is wildly overgrown with tall weeds and grass. I keep the male in with the females (1.4) and there has been no trouble with this. In my experience, the male is active and breeding only sporadically. I see him pestering a female maybe once a week or so, the rest of the time I never see him.

My problem with getting babies is that I don't ever see the nests being dug, so if I do get eggs, the ants eat them before they can hatch. This is a people problem, not a tortoise problem.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Good luck with that.