Anna's Gift to Me

[Jacqui]

This last Sunday, my husband (Jeff) and I were putting a cover over the Russian enclosure. I decided after working around the Ornate boxies as we did their pen, to remove the nine Russians while we worked. So they all went back into the house into the one remaining Russian quarters from winter that I hadn't quite finished cleaning out.

I figured they would just be spending a day or two, so never added more substrate or even dampened down the remaining old substrate. (I had removed some of the substrate already to do some planting with).

As life happens, things kept coming up and with trying to rearrange plants between storms and tornado watches, their short stay lasted a bit longer. It was Wednesday night about 5:30 p.m., when I finally got a chance to put them back outside.

I was removing the first two torts, when I noticed that Anna looked a little strange as she was sitting at an angle with little substrate under her. I carefully removed all the rest of the torts from the pen, except for the clever one sleeping in the log Anna was next to. I was afraid removing it would result in bumping Anna.

A few hours later, when I checked on her this is what I saw:

I tried to quickly snap a picture. Please remember I am not use to taking pictures and my main thoughts were trying not to disturb her with me being there or the flash going off, so the picture is not the best quality.

You can clearly see her one egg and just under the dirt between the first egg and her right back foot is the second one.

 

[JustAnja]

Ahhhh congrats

 

[jlyoncc1]

That's great Jacqui! Hooray for you.

 

[Isa]

Congratulations Jacqui

 

[egyptiandan]

Thats great news Jacqui. I hope they are both fertile.
I also got my first Russian eggs this year, before I left for England. When I got back 2 of the 3 are fertile. Hopefully this will be the year of the Russian for everyone.

Danny

 

[jasso2]

super jealous

 

[Yvonne G]

I've had what I laughingly refer to as a breeding colony of Russians for about 15 years..."laughingly" because I've never seen any nesting or egg laying. This was the first year I found a nest of 3 eggs, and those came from a tortoise that was just added to my colony last summer. Fat Betty's 3 eggs are doing fine in the incubator...all three are growing little babies inside! I always assumed that having missed "seeing" where the nests were dug, the ants always destroyed them before they could hatch. Little baby Russians are just the cutest little things. Good luck with yours, Jacqui! What a nice gift to you from Anna!!

Yvonne

 

[cvalda]

YAY for you! Lucky!

If only my Russian girls would get with the program! The boys are doing their part, but the girls are not!!!

 

[Jacqui]

The main fear I have is that I will miss the nests. You try to give them as big a enclosure as possible and with lots of plants and things, but at nesting time it seems to work against you. Then with this rain coming almost every other day, I figure they will nest and then even the little signs they leave behind will be washed away. Would be nice if you could just let them incubate naturally outside here like I do the Ornate boxies.

Interested to see what color the hatchlings are (if they make it). My friend has the blonder Russians and has big dreams for this pairing to produced the blacker ones. I figure the joke will be on her and they will be really blonde. Which is fine with me, because I currently have mainly darker ones.

Am thinking maybe I should hold all the females captive inside until they lay. Think if I told them it was their freedom or eggs, they would give the eggs up?

 

[Jacqui]

YAY for you! Lucky!

If only my Russian girls would get with the program! The boys are doing their part, but the girls are not!!!

That's pretty much how I was feeling too. My females have all just gotten into the size to start producing. A couple I have been raising for a couple of years, so am pretty excited the timing is getting closer for them.

 

[Jacqui]

super jealous

Like I said in the other thread, sometimes all it takes is time. I have been working for several years with my Russians. I had to get them to size. Then I also got a few new males. It's just playing with the variables and patience. For me the patience part is the hardest thing of all.

These eggs are actually the work of three tortoise people. Each of us doing our part and working together for this moment to happen. I think that's one reason these eggs mean a lot to me. Two of the folks I most admire in the tort world, each gave me a major part of this puzzle. I owe Shelly and Paula more then I can repay.

Your time will come Jasso!

 

[Yvonne G]

Interested to see what color the hatchlings are (if they make it). My friend has the blonder Russians and has big dreams for this pairing to produced the blacker ones. I figure the joke will be on her and they will be really blonde. Which is fine with me, because I currently have mainly darker ones.

I would be interested in hearing what the really knowledgeable folks have to say about this. It is my OPINION that there are a couple sub species of Russians. The larger, more yellow ones and the smaller, blacker ones. What do you think, Danny? Two sub-species?

Yvonne

 

[egyptiandan]

Supposedly there are 3 subspecies Yvonne, which don't really correspond to colour They are
T.h.horsfieldii
T.h.kazachstanica
T.h.rustamovi
From what I can tell, and it's hard to find info the the subspecies, is that T.h.horsfieldii is round, domed and is usually light in colour. They are size wise in the middle of the other 2.
T.h.kazachstanica is round, flat and can be light or very dark in colour depending on the elevation they are from. They are the smallest subspecies
T.h.rustamovi is elongated, domed and usually light in colour. They are the biggest subspecies.

Right now I have 4 groups. One that maybe T.h.horsfieldii, they are round and domed. One that is definately T.h.kazachstanica as they are round and flat. One that maybe T.h.rustamovi as they are elongated and domed and a pair that are elongated, domed, but black so I left them together as a seperate pair.

Danny

 

[spikethebest]

awwww how cute!!!!! congratulations!!!

 

[Yvonne G]

Supposedly there are 3 subspecies Yvonne, which don't really correspond to colour They are
T.h.horsfieldii
T.h.kazachstanica
T.h.rustamovi
Danny

Now that I see your answer, I realize I had asked and you had answered this question before. Sorry...old age, ya know! Thank you for not rubbing my face in it!

Yvonne

 

[cvalda]

will different sub-species breed together fine?

i've got 6 breeding sized girls, supposedly most have produced eggs in the past. i've got two boys that are "active" (and two other boys that should be soon)... we've only had the five infertile eggs from calypso, and nothing from the rest of them. i didn't hibernate them this year, so maybe that is making a difference?

 

[egyptiandan]

I would never do that Yvonne

Kelly I can only think that they might be different subspecies and thats why your eggs have been infertile. A friend in the UK gets all his eggs in the winter (he doesn't hibernate them) and has an almost 100% fertility rate. It seems though most of the Russians in the UK are T.h.horsfieldii, so he has a compatable group.
If you want to send me straight down on carapace shots and shell profile shots all with length, width and height measurements I should be able to sort them out.

Danny

 

[Jentortmom]

Congrats on the eggs, I have gotton one so for this season, but I know one of my new ones already laid this season and they all just came of size. So hopefully next year I will get more.. just an fyi if you didn't already know this Danny, they moved the russians into there own group Agrionemys horsfieldii..

 

[egyptiandan]

Already knew that Jen but most people now have gone back to Testudo for Russians as they don't really warrant their own Genus. Lots of recent DNA work has been done on the Testudo group and Russians fit very well into the Genus.

Danny

 

[Crazy1]

Jacqui, congrats on your eggs and your picture is great. Fingers crossed they are fertile