Living the Dream

Hopefully I can redeem myself with this post after my lizard box turtles hatched.

It's been a long time coming, but we had a very unexpected surprise in the star tortoise pen last night:



The parents are long time captives, and to the best of my knowledge, have no related genetics within the continental US. Both parents are good size, with the female being one of the largest Indian Star specimens I've seen. Both beautiful tortoises.





I bought this pair about 5 years ago and always got a bunch of large eggs from them, but none have been fertile. My intent is to raise these to up and keep them in a breeding group. Exciting times!

Congrats. Glad it's finally working out for you.

That's such good news!! Congratulations!

That's great news. How large are the parents?

Any theories as to why it took so long to get fertile eggs from them? I'm assuming they were adults when you acquired them.

G-stars said:

That's great news. How large are the parents?

Any theories as to why it took so long to get fertile eggs from them? I'm assuming they were adults when you acquired them.

Click to expand...

I'll try and remember to measure them tonight. Male is 8 inches give or take, female is around 10 or 11 inches.

As far as theories, I have a couple.

They both have some shell deformities, especially the female. The rear portion of her shell is collapsed, similar to what you might see in a tortoise with MBD. The information I received was that they were approximately 20 years old when I received them. Judging by the wear on their shells, I think that is a good estimate. So my first theory is that they may have not received the best care for a long time period, and perhaps that had some influence on their fertility.

Theory two: In the five years I have had them I moved 3 times, with my current house being the longest I've stayed in one spot with them. It never phased my leopards or other stars, but maybe it did this pair. I've heard similar stories of turtles and tortoises taking a number of years after a move before reproducing, and I've experienced this first hand with nearly every group of box turtles I've had.

Theory 3: I'm not incubating the eggs correctly. Eggs from my other star pairs have been very easy, but maybe there's just something I'm not getting right with this pair. The eggs that hatched were left in the ground. The nest had 5 eggs, one was cracked and the remaining two do not look good. So I am not thinking that this theory is as likely as the others...but leaving them alone resulted in more hatchlings than artificial incubation.

I really don't have the scientific backing to investigate a cause any further.

Congrats Neal. They both look amazing.

So they hatched on their own in the ground?

Congrats and enjoy the baby's!! They look lovely. I hope you keep posting photo's.

Love the babies shell pattern !!! Congrats ! I hope to have babies one day if my eggs dare to be fertile

Tom said:

Congrats Neal. They both look amazing.

So they hatched on their own in the ground?

Click to expand...

Yep. The nest was laid sometime mid-spring.

Nice! That is a big girl. You are redeemed