leopard tortoise eggs

[Yvonne G]

I noticed my biggest leopard female digging a nest a couple days ago, and finally remembered tonight to dig them up. I adopted out my males about 2 years ago, and she never dug a nest since not being bred. However, there were 29 eggs in this hole (I broke 2), with 10 sort of on one side of the nest, and 19 sort of on the other side...so I think it was actually two nests. I noticed a couple weeks ago that she had mud on her back end and back feet, but I was unable to find a nest. They do a lot of peeing when they are digging in hard dirt, and by the time they lay the eggs, the ground is pretty muddy.

So, about 2 years since being bred, is still in the realm of possibly fertile. However, last time she dug a nest, I still had the males, so I figured she had laid all her fertile eggs. Well, time will tell:

 

[Claireabbo]

cool!!

 

[dmmj]

WOW sounds like a lot of eggs at your place, how are the emy emy eggs doing?

 

[ewam]

Wow 29 eggs is a lot isn't it?

 

[lynnedit]

You are certainly a tortoise egg nursery these days!

 

[dmarcus]

Cool hope they are fertile...

 

[chase thorn]

i would love a hatchling!

 

[Yvonne G]

WOW sounds like a lot of eggs at your place, how are the emy emy eggs doing?

They all collapsed. Bummer.

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i would love a hatchling!

Well, give me about 3 months. If any of them hatch, and you want to drive out here to pick one up, you're welcome to have one.

 

[chase thorn]

WOW sounds like a lot of eggs at your place, how are the emy emy eggs doing?

They all collapsed. Bummer.

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i would love a hatchling!

Well, give me about 3 months. If any of them hatch, and you want to drive out here to pick one up, you're welcome to have one.

---

if only i had a car...

 

[Neal]

PM me if any of those eggs are fertile please. (assuming you would want to sell them or whatever)

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, I hate to count my chickens before they hatch, but same goes for you...if they hatch and you want to drive to California to pick one or more up, you're more than welcome to them. The eggs actually look pretty darned good. They are every one of them chalked. But time will tell.

 

[chase thorn]

Well, I hate to count my chickens before they hatch, but same goes for you...if they hatch and you want to drive to California to pick one or more up, you're more than welcome to them. The eggs actually look pretty darned good. They are every one of them chalked. But time will tell.

are you against shipping?

 

[dmmj]

That is a bummer about the emy emy eggs.

 

[Yvonne G]

Shipping baby tortoises isn't one of my favorite things.

 

[chase thorn]

Shipping baby tortoises isn't one of my favorite things.

i cant argue with that. im not a 100% on the idea myself.

 

[DesertGrandma]

How exciting. Just curious...can you dig them up at any time and incubate them? Is the female GPB or GPP? Will be fun to follow their development.

 

[Tom]

Holy cow! 19 eggs on the one side. That's a pretty big load of eggs.

We just had a discussion about leopards retaining sperm from previous breedings. The general consensus was that they can retain it and produce fertile eggs for at least three years, and some people think as long as five or six years.

 

[Yvonne G]

How exciting. Just curious...can you dig them up at any time and incubate them? Is the female GPB or GPP? Will be fun to follow their development.

Yes you can. If you get to the nest right away, you don't have to be careful with the orientation of the egg, but if you dig them up after they've had a chance to start to grow, you have to keep them in the same position you find them in. Supposedly, the embryo will be crushed (suffocate?) if you turn them once they've started to grow.

The female is a Babcock.

 

[Stephanie]

Whoa, that's a lot of eggs! They look purdy! Congratulations!

 

[dmmj]

Didn't danny say ( I think) that the eggs need to dipause to be fertile?