Helpppp my Russian tortoise laid her first egg

[Lizzo&Leo]

I have 2 Russian tortoises and my male has been trying to mate with my female. I have never seen him be successful but he tries. We are currently in a winter storm and my torts vet is closed today. I found one egg in their enclosure this morning. What do I do? It appears that it has been unharmed and it is quite big. I would say an inch and a half long and maybe 3/4 inch wide. I do not have an incubator and cannot go get one until the storm lets up tomorrow.

 

[zovick]

I have 2 Russian tortoises and my male has been trying to mate with my female. I have never seen him be successful but he tries. We are currently in a winter storm and my torts vet is closed today. I found one egg in their enclosure this morning. What do I do? It appears that it has been unharmed and it is quite big. I would say an inch and a half long and maybe 3/4 inch wide. I do not have an incubator and cannot go get one until the storm lets up tomorrow.

Remove the egg from the enclosure before it gets stepped on and broken. Then put it in a small jar or container with some of the same substrate it is on now. Keep it at normal room temperature (68-72F) for a few days until you can get an incubator set up with correct temp and vermiculite in which to put the egg. After you get the temp stabilized in the incubator (takes a day or so), then you can place the egg in the incubator.

Note that the above is just generalized instruction on what to do UNTIL you get the incubator, NOT instructions on proper incubation of Russian Tortoise eggs. I have incubated thousands of tortoise eggs, but not Russian Tortoise eggs, so that info is best supplied by another member.

 

[wellington]

@Tom

 

[Tom]

I have 2 Russian tortoises and my male has been trying to mate with my female. I have never seen him be successful but he tries. We are currently in a winter storm and my torts vet is closed today. I found one egg in their enclosure this morning. What do I do? It appears that it has been unharmed and it is quite big. I would say an inch and a half long and maybe 3/4 inch wide. I do not have an incubator and cannot go get one until the storm lets up tomorrow.

What Zovick said, but I wouldn't worry at all about the temperature of the egg. Anywhere from 40-90 degrees won't hurt it for a few weeks even. Regular room temp is best though.

Here is some incubation info, but take special note, unlike every other species that I know of, Russian eggs must be incubated on DRY media. Do not add any water. If you read tortoise incubation instructions elsewhere, it might not specify this detail. High humidity in the incubator is necessary, but not damp incubation media touching the egg.

How To Incubate Eggs And Start Hatchlings

I put my eggs in a plastic shoe box with a lid on it and put the shoe box in the incubator. You can drill a couple of very small holes around the top of the container, but not on the lid. I use vermiculite as an incubation media. I mix it in a 1 : 1 ratio with water by weight for Sulcatas and...

tortoiseforum.org

The next very important detail is that tortoises should NEVER live in pairs. This is really bad for both of them. They need to be separated ASAP. More on that here:

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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Good luck with your egg, and questions are welcome.

 

[TechnoCheese]

+1 for getting them separated. The male has likely been stressing the female terribly. This is a very similar example: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...together-a-lesson-learned-the-hard-way.94114/