CDT laying eggs without mating?

[snaofreno]

My 50 yr old CDT dug a huge hole and hung out in it for about 3 weeks. After that she has had nothing to do with it. She has returned to our garage to nap during the day and sleep at night. The hole goes under our house. I cannot get down far enough to see if there are/were eggs. The deal is.....she is an only child. She has not been around another tortoise to mate. I am wondering if she can lay eggs but they are not fertile. See photo of her in hole. I moved the cement umbrella holder to prevent it from caving in on her. Thank you.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi snaofreno:

Tortoises will sometimes dig a nest hole at the mouth of their burrow, but what I'm seeing is a burrow, and not a nest.

Some female tortoises will lay eggs without having been bred, but most will not. Because your tortoise has been alone for such a long time and has not laid eggs before, she probably will not lay eggs. But there is no hard, fast rule. She may and she may not.

 

[ascott]

Looks like a burrow entrance to me as well..... awesome....

 

[snaofreno]

So if it is a burrow, why did she leave it after 3 weeks? I guess I will just have to ask her......

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, you know...think about it: summer home...winter home??

 

[TortoiseBoy1999]

Just looks like a burrow

 

[Jacqui]

So if it is a burrow, why did she leave it after 3 weeks? I guess I will just have to ask her......

Was there maybe a change of weather? Like was it hotter or drier, when she dug and was using her burrow?

 

[SamB]

Our CDT April does this alot. After and before Hibernation is seems. The rest of the summer she just goes all over the 1/2 acre backyard - wonders - suns - shades - then back to her house for bedtime

 

[ascott]

I have here 4 CDTs and only one of them has the drive to burrow and has a nice 6+ foot deep burrow...one of the others was mad at me last winter when I covered his deep man (chick) made raised hide and quickly dug a shallow burrow about 2 feet deep....an another one tried to dig under his raised hide but quickly gave it up...and the old man here is located in a part on a part of the property that has such solid hard soil that he was only able to get one dug the size of his whole self--then he gave up, kinda think because he wore his nails down really short.....so each of them do their own thing depending on their environment and drive....not strange at all....also, where she was digging perhaps she ran into a water line that disturbed her plans????