Banging!!

[katfinlou]

Could anyone please tell me why my Hermanns has started banging repeatedly into the wall of her enclosure? Shes demolished her plants, both real and fake today, trampled her food instead of eating it and now she is just rocking back and forth repeatedly butting the side of the enclosure. Im very worried, she's been so settled for ages after the egg laying saga last year...

 

[HermanniChris]

How old is she? Sounds like gravid behavior. Female Hermann's tortoises will get extremely aggressive when gravid at times. I can hear some of ours right now battling it out for nesting rights.

 

[katfinlou]

She's about 5-6 years old. She wasn't this bad last time she laid eggs. She is actually charging up to the table boundaries whenever she senses me or my kids near. She's truly been on the rampage today, ive never seen her like this before. She's normally so docile and loves a chin rub, Id lose a finger if I tried that today lol

 

[katfinlou]

Looks like we are in for another batch of eggs. Belle is displaying the same symptoms as the last time she laid, only then i didn't realise what was wrong.
If she does lay, should i incubate or can I safely presume they are going to be infertile as the last lot were? Will she continue to lay all her life? It seems to be quite a pointless and traumatic experience for her to keep going through.

 

[Moozillion]

The only thing I can possibly think of, is that she may have retained sperm from before you got her? I've heard that female tortoises can retain/store sperm from a mating for up to 3 years.
I don't really know, I'm just guessing here.