I think is the latest I have had a sulcata lay eggs in the year. An older female I used to have that was imported directly from Niger, laid pretty regularly from Nov - April. I sold her several years ago now, and this is one of her babies I kept. Her 4th year of laying and 3rd clutch this year. All four years now, she has not laid until the beginning of March, and now another clutch in June.
Going to feed the turtles and fish with a cup of coffee this morning - I saw this in the tortoise area...
she had been digging around the past two days, so I expected it. This is the first time she picked this spot, but the plants have grown up and I had recently turned over all the soil around this center planter. I had dug entire this area out to about 30" deep and put in really good mix of amended soils to create a nesting area, but she had always chosen spots elsewhere until now... You can see how much open area is around the eggs with the chamber as they build it. Also a bit of poop in there just for good measure! I think they pretty commonly leave some for the babies as they hatch to get the old gut flora a jump start!
So into the incubator they go. Her clutch from March is due to hatch the end of next week.
Going to feed the turtles and fish with a cup of coffee this morning - I saw this in the tortoise area...
she had been digging around the past two days, so I expected it. This is the first time she picked this spot, but the plants have grown up and I had recently turned over all the soil around this center planter. I had dug entire this area out to about 30" deep and put in really good mix of amended soils to create a nesting area, but she had always chosen spots elsewhere until now... You can see how much open area is around the eggs with the chamber as they build it. Also a bit of poop in there just for good measure! I think they pretty commonly leave some for the babies as they hatch to get the old gut flora a jump start!
So into the incubator they go. Her clutch from March is due to hatch the end of next week.