- Joined
- Jan 20, 2012
- Messages
- 110
This seems completely crazy to me, and I have read nothing similar to it. It seems un-natural and frankly, unhealthy....
but my female hermann tortoise won't stop laying eggs.
I have posted previously her story about laying cracked eggs which does appear to be calcium related.
I documented her egg laying history for 2012, which is her only year of breeding. I bought her in late 2011 at a reported age of 7, and a weight of 950-1000g. In retrospect she should have been kept seperate from my male until she had full health, because when i bought her she couldn't lift her shell very well. She is much stronger now, although you can see from the pyramiding in the pic below she does have some MBD.
Her is her data:
14 clutches totalling 36 eggs (1-4 eggs/clutch)
14 broke during delivery
2 were manually broken as she was egg bound on one occasion with two eggs
20 were delivered intact
8 were fertile
-2 hatched healthy
-2 died in shell (one never developed an egg tooth)
-1 split due to high humidity (oops!)
-3 currently incubating
Comments:
1. I stopped her contact with the male, but she continued to lay at the same rate. In past 2 months I decided if she is going to keep laying eggs, she might as well be bred, so I began allowing occasional contact with my male. She began laying fertile eggs again, like she did early in the process.
2. I seem to be able to reduce the cracking rate of the eggs by increasing calcium. I have always added lots of calcium carbonate to her food and she will eat cuttle bone in her enclosure, especially for days before egg laying. The most effective method I used was liquid calcium lactogluconate but knowing what dose to give is unknown to me, so when I was using it at the largest dose, she got egg bound and I wonder if the eggs were too calcified/lost flexibility. I have resorted to adding a much smaller dose recently and she just layed 4 eggs, one cracked, but 3 fertile ones did not.
3. I am completely shocked at this experience. I postulated too much calcium may be driving a need to lay eggs, so for a while i held back calcium and she just laid more cracked thin eggs. I have not been able to find any experience similar to this online so I thought I would post it. She behaves more like a hen than a tortoise! A snake breeder told me recently that he had a snake like this that wouldn't stop laying until he removed the male from his house! I can't do that, so I have nothing else to try.....
Just wanted to share, and if there are any constructive comments, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
Bob
but my female hermann tortoise won't stop laying eggs.
I have posted previously her story about laying cracked eggs which does appear to be calcium related.
I documented her egg laying history for 2012, which is her only year of breeding. I bought her in late 2011 at a reported age of 7, and a weight of 950-1000g. In retrospect she should have been kept seperate from my male until she had full health, because when i bought her she couldn't lift her shell very well. She is much stronger now, although you can see from the pyramiding in the pic below she does have some MBD.
Her is her data:
14 clutches totalling 36 eggs (1-4 eggs/clutch)
14 broke during delivery
2 were manually broken as she was egg bound on one occasion with two eggs
20 were delivered intact
8 were fertile
-2 hatched healthy
-2 died in shell (one never developed an egg tooth)
-1 split due to high humidity (oops!)
-3 currently incubating
Comments:
1. I stopped her contact with the male, but she continued to lay at the same rate. In past 2 months I decided if she is going to keep laying eggs, she might as well be bred, so I began allowing occasional contact with my male. She began laying fertile eggs again, like she did early in the process.
2. I seem to be able to reduce the cracking rate of the eggs by increasing calcium. I have always added lots of calcium carbonate to her food and she will eat cuttle bone in her enclosure, especially for days before egg laying. The most effective method I used was liquid calcium lactogluconate but knowing what dose to give is unknown to me, so when I was using it at the largest dose, she got egg bound and I wonder if the eggs were too calcified/lost flexibility. I have resorted to adding a much smaller dose recently and she just layed 4 eggs, one cracked, but 3 fertile ones did not.
3. I am completely shocked at this experience. I postulated too much calcium may be driving a need to lay eggs, so for a while i held back calcium and she just laid more cracked thin eggs. I have not been able to find any experience similar to this online so I thought I would post it. She behaves more like a hen than a tortoise! A snake breeder told me recently that he had a snake like this that wouldn't stop laying until he removed the male from his house! I can't do that, so I have nothing else to try.....
Just wanted to share, and if there are any constructive comments, I'd love to hear them!
Thanks,
Bob
