Fake eggs

[badandy]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some help. We have a Spur Thighed tortoise, we've had her 20 years although she's a lot older than that, and she has started popping out eggs, 5 now over the last couple of months. We've never seen anything like it before, although she used to run free in the garden until we came to Canada, so it might not be the first time it's happened. I asked the local vet, but I don't think she'd ever seen a real tortoise before! Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes when a female has unfertilized eggs inside of her, she will just let them go as she moves around the garden, as opposed to digging a hole and depositing them in the hole. Its no big deal, and completely normal. However, after 20 years I'm surprised she has just started this now. Just be sure she has enough calcium in her diet. Some female tortoises do the "egg thing" like chickens do, and others don't lay eggs unless they've been with a male.

Yvonne

 

[egyptiandan]

It would help also to know what kind of tortoise you do have, as the trade uses that name for 2 different species of tortoise.
Do you have a Sulcata, Centrochelys sulcata or a Greek, Testudo graeca. This will help us figure out if she has anymore eggs inside her.
Like Yvonne said sometimes females do lay eggs without being with a male.

Danny

 

[badandy]

It would help also to know what kind of tortoise you do have, as the trade uses that name for 2 different species of tortoise.
Do you have a Sulcata, Centrochelys sulcata or a Greek, Testudo graeca. This will help us figure out if she has anymore eggs inside her.
Like Yvonne said sometimes females do lay eggs without being with a male.

Danny

First of all, thanks for the help. She's a Greek, she was fully grown when we got her (we found her 20 years ago, couldn't trace an owner), our vet in the UK thought she was about 30-40 years old at that time, so she could be 50-60 now, but who knows.

 

[egyptiandan]

Depending on how big she is, she could have more eggs inside her. I would take her to your vet and have her x-rayed to find out for sure if she has laid all the eggs she has.
Do you have any pictures of her?

Danny

 

[badandy]

I'll have a look. Also two of the eggs were solid and dimpled like golf balls, a little odd, but the others just looked like eggs.

 

[egyptiandan]

Sounds like the 2 hard and dimpled ones she held onto for over a year and just kept adding calcium to the eggs. The other 3 were most likely from this year.

Danny

 

[badandy]

Hopefully I managed to attach 2 pictures of her taken today in her vivarium. She is 24cm / 10" long from front to back of her carapace, and weighs 2.5kg / 5.5lbs.

 

[egyptiandan]

She looks great She seems to have had a run in with a spade early on in her life.
She also is a Testudo graeca ibera.

Danny

 

[badandy]

The cleft is the result of bad diet when she was young, a lot of British tortoises used to get it, too much lettuce and not enough heat to digest their food properly and extract the goodness. When I was young loads of people had tortoises, but they didn't often survive hibernation so now there is a licensing system in place. You're supposed to be registered with the government to buy or sell tortoises, and they have to be bred in the UK.

 

[terrypin]

The cleft is the result of bad diet when she was young, a lot of British tortoises used to get it, too much lettuce and not enough heat to digest their food properly and extract the goodness. When I was young loads of people had tortoises, but they didn't often survive hibernation so now there is a licensing system in place. You're supposed to be registered with the government to buy or sell tortoises, and they have to be bred in the UK.

hi that looks like a terrible injury im surprised you think it might be due to her previous diet it certainly looks like a physical trauma from your pictures.i agree that it looks like she had retained eggs ,and a big girl like her may have more iside her so an xray is wise to see what condition they are in and if she needs help to shift them.
terry

 

[stells]

That does look more of an old injury than anything else. I live in the UK and have two old boys who were fed salad and left out in the garden 24/7 all year round for at least the last 50 years neither of them have this and you can see the crack right back on the carapace.

Also to anyone now panicing in the UK because they aren't registered with the government or haven't got a license, this is not how it works, some species of tortoises (off the top of my head (Hermanns, graeca, marginated etc) should have a certificate issued by DEFRA when purchased, sold, and bred (hatchlings can't be sold without certificates but can be rehomed free of charge the same applies for older tortoises need rehoming but haven't got certificates if they are a species requiring them). Some species do not require certificates (Horsfields, Redfoots, Stars and others)
Tortoises are also still imported into the UK so not all tortoises sold in the UK are UKCB, it is frowned upon to buy such tortoises from petshops etc but it does happen and is not illegal.

 

[badandy]

I can only go by what the vet said about the crack, like I said she was full grown when we found her, so who knows - anyway, we're off for an x-ray, thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Crazy1]

Good luck with her and please let us know what the x-rays show.