so im curious of how many Russian breeders there are here? ive been looking in the sold and for sale and no luck finding many...
dmmj said:I don't know of any really, some seem to do it by chance then actively breeding. I like many others are trying to set up breeding groups.
GBtortoises said:GeoTerraTestudo-Russian tortoises have been imported into the U.S. since the 60's. And very heavily throughout the past two decades. It's not a matter of them being newer to the trade. They've been in captivity longer than Sulcata, Leopards and a few others. While the majority of imports are barely 4" (and mostly males), there are plently of people with fully mature adults over 6". While some people, especially those in more ideal climates in the U.S. do have some limited breeding sucess for the most part the vast majority of Russians are being kept in climates where they simply are not going to breed if relying solely on seasonal changes to trigger the mating instinct. Unless of course they are being "manipulated" to do so by artificial means. Which if captive born Russians are ever to be produced in large numbers in captivity, that is likely how it's going to have to be done. The underlying problem for the lack of captive born Russians at the moment is the simple fact that small wild caught adults are still very plentiful, easy and cheap to obtain. It's more expensive to buy captive borns.
GBtortoises said:At the current rate of importation wild Russian tortoises probably only have two avenues to take-population depletion to the point of threatened existance of the species or human intervention in a positive manner. By that I mean regulating their collection and importation. It's doubtful that their collection will be regulated at their source. People in those areas have more important things to worry about and for some, collecting tortoises is an income that feeds their family. I hate to say it and would hate to have it come to this point but if the U.S. were to ban their importation into our country it would eventually help the wild populations. Several thousand Russians are imported into the U.S. alone each year. All of those are between 4-5". Importers try to skirt the 4" mark as much as possible in order to ship more tortoises in the same crate. By collecting and shipping only one size you are essentially removing an entire generation from the wild. They are shipped in such large numbers, so cheaply that they have replaced the green iguana and Red Ear Slider as the pet shop "staple" reptile. Indicated very prominately by them being sold in large chains like Petco and PetSmart.
chase thorn said:hey geo, let me know when you get some hatchling Russians, i would be more than willing to drive an hour to Denver and take one off your hands
GeoTerraTestudo said:chase thorn said:hey geo, let me know when you get some hatchling Russians, i would be more than willing to drive an hour to Denver and take one off your hands
Sweet! Gonna be a couple years, though... :shy:
chase thorn said:so im curious of how many Russian breeders there are here? ive been looking in the sold and for sale and no luck finding many...
GBtortoises said:Neltharion-I completely agree: "quite a few people mistakenly believe that because Russians are easy to car for, that they are also easy to breed".
I think many people are under the false believe that by just sticking a male and female together that they are going to start popping out eggs like crazy. Based on the number of adults in captivity compared to the relatively low number of hatchlings available this obviously isn't true. Russians are actually one of the more difficult species to breed in captivity on a consistent basis.
We'd love to hear the methods that you are using to entice your Russians to breed and produce fertile eggs on a regular basis. I for one have a ton of questions for you! Indoors, outdoors, both? Hibernation (duration)? Temperatures and light duration upon waking from hibernation or in the spring? And more!
Floof said:I'm at the same stage as dmmj. Trying to put together a group. I was given 4 adults yesterday, so I'm finally getting started on that... Only problem is 3 of them are male, so the ratio is kind of backwards.. heh. Working on separating the female, picking which male I want to keep, and tracking down another couple girls to round things out, then maybe, if I'm lucky enough, I can FINALLY get started on this (something I've been yammering on about doing for the better part of a year, and thinking about for almost 2 years...).
I believe Tyler Stewart/Tortoise Supply in Las Vegas breeds Russians, too, as far as good and current breeders are concerned.