How can you tell if your tortoise has eggs by feeling her?
About what would be the cost for an x-ray?
About what would be the cost for an x-ray?
emysemys said:You can GENTLY palpate in front of a back leg. If there are eggs ready to be laid, you will feel a little marble through the skin.
Here in my city, an X-ray costs around $90.
pdrobber said:I think Yvonne meant the space near the back legs that they go into the shell...on either side of the tail is where you can see/feel the ball socket joints for the legs...they're always there, they're not eggs.
emysemys said:You can GENTLY palpate in front of a back leg. If there are eggs ready to be laid, you will feel a little marble through the skin.
Here in my city, an X-ray costs around $90.
GBtortoises said:Detecting eggs by palpating as Yvonne describes above is very easy with aquatic and semi-terrestrial turtles. I've never had any luck doing so with tortoises.
Yes, all the time. When I used to keep several species of aquatic and terrestrial turtles as well as tortoises I would palpate turtles almost daily when I knew they were getting ready to nest. This way I would know which females were carrying eggs and which had already nested. This way if a female was gravid one day and not the next I knew that she nested somewhere within the enclosure and I would have to go on an egg hunt to find them!ReptileStation said:GBtortoises said:Detecting eggs by palpating as Yvonne describes above is very easy with aquatic and semi-terrestrial turtles. I've never had any luck doing so with tortoises.
So you have tried it and did not feel anythig but in fact they where gravid?
exoticsdr said:You can palpate eggs if they are ready to be laid, by palpating at the location that Yvonne describes....just be careful if you are even thinking about doing it to a larger species tort or you might find your finger stuck when they suck their legs in. Had my best friend get his finger trapped by my big female Leopard, Tortollini, and because he had approached from the front of the rear leg fossa, his finger when trapped was being hyperextended and he was in alot of pain...after I quit laughing, I got her to release him.
GBtortoises said:Detecting eggs by palpating as Yvonne describes above is very easy with aquatic and semi-terrestrial turtles. I've never had any luck doing so with tortoises.