Egg laying....

[AZ-Sky-17]

Our tortoise late approximately 18 eggs today in a bro she dug. I let her cover them up and I am leaving her alone. We live in Arizona and it is pretty warm here. I am wondering how long it will take before they hatch and if there is anything special I need to do in the meantime.

For the record – we did not mean to have babies. We thought our tortoise, Lobo, who we rescued off the highway, was lonely so we got him a friend. It turns out Lobo is a boy and his friend was a girl and they were both pretty lonely, if you know what I mean.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

If you leave them in the ground, they might hatch, or they might cook in summer. If they do hatch, they will have a tough time digging out of the dry earth. If they come up on a 114 degree day, they might not survive it. Its all a gamble. I would either destroy the eggs, or dig them up and incubate them. If this is her first clutch, they are not likely to all be fertile. Many first time moms have zero fertility.

I hope you have learned that tortoise don't get lonely and don't want or need other tortoises around. These two need to be separated. They should never be kept in pairs. The male will harass the female to the point where she is likely to die. If you want more than one, then you need several females to one male. This would result in a baby factory. Literally.

Here are tips on incubation and starting babies. Most of the info out there for starting babies is wrong. Its been repeated for 30 years and it was based in incorrect assumptions about how they live in the wild.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-incubate-eggs-and-start-hatchlings.124266/