- Joined
- Mar 9, 2011
- Messages
- 24
Hello all,
I've been lurking for a little while and finally plucked up enough courage to post something. I figured i'd start with an introduction
My name is Sarah and my family and I are proud owners of two lovely Indian Star tortoises - Otis and Tofu. We've had them for just over 3 years and got them when they looked like pretty little golf balls. My folks live on the teeny weeny island of Borneo, where the torts are (I'm off in Australia furthering my studies). Although the climate is pretty ideal for the little guys, the buying of equipment and supplements and finding a decent vet for them has been a nightmare - so i bring a box of goodies back with me every time i visit.
Now on to my essay :/
On my last visit home for Chinese New Year, Tofu laid a single egg infront of about 20 people watching through a sliding door during our open house. It was incredibly exciting to watch but I was horrified. I was always under the impression that Stars reached sexual maturity at around 6 - 8 years of age so I was quite willing to pick her up and RUN to the nearest vet cos she looked like she was in so much pain. She didn't dig a hole, she just stretched her back legs and pushed, it took a while and Otis was hiding in his shell infront of her the whole time. After she was done she walked off and munched on some food and then retreated to her hide.
After reading some forums I added extra dampened substrate to her enclosure cos I read that they need at least 8 - 12 inches deep in order to successfully dig a nest and up-ed her calcium and the frequency of her soaks. However, 3 days later she laid another single egg - on the surface and two weeks after that (I had already come back to Australia by then) I got a msg from my dad telling me that she had laid another single egg, again on the surface.
The incubation of the eggs is the least of my worries at the moment (although finding/making an incubator in that part of the world is incredibly time consuming and near impossible, will save that for another rant) as I'm far more concerned about Tofu's welfare. Is there a reason as to why she's laying one egg at a time so sporadically and not digging holes and burying them? Is there any other information I can forward on to my folks to make Tofu's egg-laying experience a slightly more pleasant one? Behaviour-wise she hasn't changed, she's never really been a shy tort and she's always been a big eater, none of this has change since the laying of her first egg.
Sorry for the incredibly long chunk of text, attached a little photo I had laying around of Otis... being Otis. Really hope I post this right!
Thanks for reading
I've been lurking for a little while and finally plucked up enough courage to post something. I figured i'd start with an introduction
My name is Sarah and my family and I are proud owners of two lovely Indian Star tortoises - Otis and Tofu. We've had them for just over 3 years and got them when they looked like pretty little golf balls. My folks live on the teeny weeny island of Borneo, where the torts are (I'm off in Australia furthering my studies). Although the climate is pretty ideal for the little guys, the buying of equipment and supplements and finding a decent vet for them has been a nightmare - so i bring a box of goodies back with me every time i visit.
Now on to my essay :/
On my last visit home for Chinese New Year, Tofu laid a single egg infront of about 20 people watching through a sliding door during our open house. It was incredibly exciting to watch but I was horrified. I was always under the impression that Stars reached sexual maturity at around 6 - 8 years of age so I was quite willing to pick her up and RUN to the nearest vet cos she looked like she was in so much pain. She didn't dig a hole, she just stretched her back legs and pushed, it took a while and Otis was hiding in his shell infront of her the whole time. After she was done she walked off and munched on some food and then retreated to her hide.
After reading some forums I added extra dampened substrate to her enclosure cos I read that they need at least 8 - 12 inches deep in order to successfully dig a nest and up-ed her calcium and the frequency of her soaks. However, 3 days later she laid another single egg - on the surface and two weeks after that (I had already come back to Australia by then) I got a msg from my dad telling me that she had laid another single egg, again on the surface.
The incubation of the eggs is the least of my worries at the moment (although finding/making an incubator in that part of the world is incredibly time consuming and near impossible, will save that for another rant) as I'm far more concerned about Tofu's welfare. Is there a reason as to why she's laying one egg at a time so sporadically and not digging holes and burying them? Is there any other information I can forward on to my folks to make Tofu's egg-laying experience a slightly more pleasant one? Behaviour-wise she hasn't changed, she's never really been a shy tort and she's always been a big eater, none of this has change since the laying of her first egg.
Sorry for the incredibly long chunk of text, attached a little photo I had laying around of Otis... being Otis. Really hope I post this right!
Thanks for reading