- Joined
- Jan 20, 2012
- Messages
- 110
I have recently purchased a beautiful super friendly female hermann. There was successful copulation with my 5 yr old male within a few days. The 7 yr old female then had her first clutch of eggs ever about 4-6 weeks later. However, the three eggs all cracked curcumferentially around the center just prior to being laid and were delivered cracked. I had provided a lot of calcium to this tortoise over the few months I had her. I then really tried to increase her calcium intake over next couple weeks and she did lay a second clutch of 2 eggs, and again both were cracked. The shells did seem less brittle ( unlike the first clutch, the shell pieces did not crush when she moved them around with her hind legs in the nest- i have the very first attempt at laying on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKrXXRTotQ
if you got to the 2 min mark you will hear a little crack noise and then the egg comes out broken. 2 weeks later she had stronger, but still similarily broken eggs.) The calcium I have been using is calcium carbonate with D3. I live in a northern area. My torts are kept inside.
She shuffles her shell along possibly due to calcium insufficiency, possibly from walking on glass.
I just discovered the eggs are a couple mm's larger than her boney orifice between the plastron and the posterior scute of her shell. given she is so young (7yrs) and only 5" maybe she is just too small to be egg laying yet! i'm glad she has not become egg bound and hopefully by correcting any dietary problems (ie. calcium deficiency) she will grow healthily and have normal eggs in the future. (one of my fears is that if she has well calcified eggs anytime soon, they may not crack and she may become egg bound.)
My questions are: has anyone else experienced this? Could it simply be calcium deficiency? What about D3 toxicity? Can a tortoise really be too small to let the egg out? Any other suggestion? Could this just be a genetic or structural abnormality that will never allow this tortoise to lay intact eggs? Will she grow significantly more to allow for egg delivery?Any comments welcome!
i will attempt to put some pics below...........
if you got to the 2 min mark you will hear a little crack noise and then the egg comes out broken. 2 weeks later she had stronger, but still similarily broken eggs.) The calcium I have been using is calcium carbonate with D3. I live in a northern area. My torts are kept inside.
She shuffles her shell along possibly due to calcium insufficiency, possibly from walking on glass.
I just discovered the eggs are a couple mm's larger than her boney orifice between the plastron and the posterior scute of her shell. given she is so young (7yrs) and only 5" maybe she is just too small to be egg laying yet! i'm glad she has not become egg bound and hopefully by correcting any dietary problems (ie. calcium deficiency) she will grow healthily and have normal eggs in the future. (one of my fears is that if she has well calcified eggs anytime soon, they may not crack and she may become egg bound.)
My questions are: has anyone else experienced this? Could it simply be calcium deficiency? What about D3 toxicity? Can a tortoise really be too small to let the egg out? Any other suggestion? Could this just be a genetic or structural abnormality that will never allow this tortoise to lay intact eggs? Will she grow significantly more to allow for egg delivery?Any comments welcome!
i will attempt to put some pics below...........