50/60 year old female

Vipetsksa

New Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2020
Messages
11
Location (City and/or State)
Jeddah
Hi Guys,

So I’ve had this female Sulcata for nearly 15 years and she’s around 50 or 60 years old best guess. She was living alone for the majority of her life and 2 years ago I introduced two young males (around 12-15 years old).
They immediately showed interest and that same year she laid 6 clutches. The following year (this year) they had also bred multiple times and she was due to start laying in January but so far she has shown no signs of laying behavior. What worries me is that she is actually spending most of the day in the large pond that we have in there and the problem is that it’s winter and the temperature in the morning is around 70 (20c) and reaching 80-82 (26-28c) in the afternoon.

She litteraly goes in the water in the early morning and sits there all day long..

Both males sunbathe all day long which is what I would expect from them at this time of year..

Any ideas as to why she would be doing this?
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
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Jan 23, 2008
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Sometimes when a tortoise is constipated or wormy or egg bound sitting in the water helps them.
 

Vipetsksa

New Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2020
Messages
11
Location (City and/or State)
Jeddah
Is she trying to escape from the 2 males?
(I'm not trying to be funny)
Could be. Didn’t think about that but it still seems as though she might be egg bound. Not sure what I can do about that as there are no qualified reptile vets in my country...
 

surfergirl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2015
Messages
489
The ratio is not good for her. In my opinion All sully's should be loners except for the breeding time frame. I am not so excited about more baby sully's anyway since most people out grown them quickly. Look in the adoption section, sad!

Unless you have huge acre size enclosures with lots of hides and escape areas. The ratio in smaller spaces (less than one acre pens)would need to be more like 1 to 10 females. Everything I have studied states putting one female in a pen with two males full of testosterone and no escape or rest time from them is physically overdemanding to the female's health. Try putting her in another enclosure away from the constant harassment / breeding and see if the water bathes stop.

I think you know the answer since your first sentence to your post indicated that she was happy and healthy while in your care for 15 years before adding the two males. It seems it that breeding and or sharing her space with males sounds like the change in her care program causing her issues.
 
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