First time mating

[Paddemor]

Hi!

Today I discovered that my two furculachelys nabeulensis tortoises was mating for the first time

I thought that they was to young for that kind of activities. They are about 2 years old now.

Is there anything I should be aware of? We haven't thought of this scenario, and whether we want to try to have babies or not. Maybe its not possible anyway because they live in captivity?

And if they make it, how long time will it take before she lay her eggs? And how long time before they hatch?

Hope somebody will help me I videotaped the mating, and hope to put it on youtube later

(I am so sorry for my poor english... I live in Norway.)

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Paddemor:

Don't worry about your English. You did just fine! I don't know anything about that kind of tortoise, but I don't see why they wouldn't be able to mate successfully in captivity. The fun part is going to be setting up an area where the female can dig and lay her eggs.

Good luck with that. I'll bet EgyptianDan will have some words of wisdom for you...

 

[egyptiandan]

It's not age, but size that determines whether they are old enough to lay eggs. How big is your female? As she needs to be 6 inches straight carapace length (SCL) to lay eggs. Males mature at a smaller size (around 4 inches) so will practice breeding before the female is big enough to lay.
It's very possible to breed tortoises in captivity (I do it all the time ).

Danny

 

[Paddemor]

Thank you so much for both answers This is really exciting I am expecting a baby myself, but I didn't think that we may have tortoise babies this year as well

I measured them now. She is 13 cm and he is 10 cm.
6 inch is about 15 cm, so she is not quite big enough. But she grows really fast.

How do I know it when she is pregnant? And what to do with the eggs?

Is it the same for all tortoises? Can I just read about another specie? I find it hard to find information about this particular specie...

 

[egyptiandan]

You'll know when she is gravid as she will start to pace, sometimes go off food and dig with her back legs.

You will need to incubate the eggs in an incubator. Either one you make yourself or you can buy one. Fairly easy to hatch, you just need them on a medium so they don't roll (vermiculite, perlite, sand, aspen almost anything will do. Temperatures between 28 and 32C and humidity at 70 to 75%.

Danny