She's definitely nesting. She digs a large hole with her front feet, then turns around and starts digging with her back feet. It looks like she starts to dig a jug shaped hole like my leopards do, but gives up at that point. In eight years she has never just burrowed, so I am 99% certain she...
It's hovering around 45 degrees here today.
She will dig, then sit in the hole, with her head in, for hours. I am more than happy to just leave her and let her get on with it, but come 7pm it is pitch black here with the temps falling. I have assumed this last week that once it gets to this...
Hi,
My female sulcata successfully laid earlier this year (March) in her nesting box that I have set up for her.
She seems to have decided it is time to lay again. She has started two nests outside - they are more like open cast mining, rather than nesting. The problem I have is that...
What is the best way to mark hatchlings to identify them? Would marker pen on the shell (just small dots) be ok? I did think about using small stickers, but these would just fall off. I guess the obvious one would be to photograph them. What do you guys do?
Here are a few photos of my first ever Sulcata's that I have hatched.
They started to pip on Thursday, and the first one left its shell this afternoon (Saturday).
There are still six eggs in the clutch that have yet to show signs of hatching.
My female Sulcata laid her first clutch of nine eggs today. She has been pacing and trying to escape her shed for days. I relented yesterday and let her out in the near freezing UK temperatures and she started to dig a nest. I returned her to her shed, but placed her on her own in the nesting...
This is the female that laid the two dotted hatchings.
This is the female that laid the light coloured hatchlings.
And this is most likely suspect for the dad.
Hi,
I have always assumed my leopards to be s.p.babcocki
Yesterday three babies hatched from a clutch and had a hint of the double spot on the scutes that I have read indicates s.p.pardalis
I am 100% certain mine aren't - is this just an anomaly.
As you can see from the photos, it is...
Thank you for the advice. I will modify my boxes with side holes and be a little more accurate with the measuring of the water to vermiculite ratio.
My leopards seem to start laying at the end of September, with the latest eggs laid on new years eve.
Being relatively new to breeding, is the...
I am realtively new to breeding tortoises. I have been keeping them for over 15 years, but it has only been the last 18 months that I have had success in breeding them.
The following is my setup
This is my incubator - I know the temp is reading low, but I have just opened the door to...
Next time I will try that. Problem is, I didn't realise there was a dead tort also in the egg. I figured something was wrong when the tort that had hatched wasn't moving (previously I could see his legs moving), so had a closer look.
Now that I know it can happen, I will be much more...
I haven't taken them out of the shell yet, they are still as they were when the live tort borke the shell. However, it is clear that they do share the same yolk sack.
One of our leopard eggs hatched at the weekened. All looked well until I checked on the eggs the following day and the hatchling appears to have died. Looking closer at the egg I could see something else odd inside, so I cracked open the egg a little to find a twin!
I thought the eggs were...
I took these photos this afternoon on my mobile phone. It is two of my Leopards getting fruity on a cold, wet, miserable day here in the UK.
The male wasn't taking no for an answer - he chased the girl around the garden for the best part of an hour.
I am in North West Lancashire in the UK, where is seems to rain 247 most of the year :-( Humidity isn't high, cool and damp is my problem.
I have been spraying the tortoises pretty much sine I started keeping them (15 or so years ago).
This was purley to keep the dust at control when I...
Here are a few pictures of some of my Leopards.
These were taken about 4 years ago.
This big girl is 19"
Some babies I got from a shop I couldn't bare to see there!
One of the babies.
I no longer use the hemp bedding, as I feel it is dangerous for tortoises - the sharp...