Mating Tilly

[yillt]

Is my tortoise to young to mate. She is 2 and 3 quarter years old and she is a marginated. If she is old enough I wondered how I could mate her because I don't really want to get another tortoise as I don't have the space to accommodate 2 lare fully grown marginated torts. Thanks.

 

[naturalman91]

how long have you had her? that's pretty young to start mating and personally if you cant house 2 then i wouldn't breed because most of the time for breeding you want 2 females to every male and the tort's have to be very comfortable to mate

 

[yillt]

If I did mate her would the babies stay with her or would she hurt them? Thanks for your advice before.

 

[naturalman91]

If I did mate her would the babies stay with her or would she hurt them? Thanks for your advice before.

i've never breed but from everything i've read i would say yes weather it be intentional or unintentional i'm not sure but in the wild babies are left to fend for themselfs from day 1 in the egg the female just leaves them i honestly wouldn't take the chance just because tort's mostly are solitary unless you have a huge enclosure where they could hardly ever see each other, i've read stories and seen pictures of torts kept together and one will chew off the foot or worst to the other and that's with species that are more "tolerant" of other torts but no tort's are really "social" so i'd be worried about what a full grown tort would do with a baby unless you had a huge enclosure and could some how block off a baby area

 

[yillt]

Ok I will wait till she is abit older. What is the best age to mate them?

 

[naturalman91]

i

Ok I will wait till she is abit older. What is the best age to mate them?

it's not about age all about size

 

[yillt]

So do you think a couple more inches and then she's set.

 

[yillt]

Also could you please tell me is she is male or female.Because I think she's female but I just want to be100 percent sure.

 

[naturalman91]

i would say a couple more YEARS and she's set may i ask why you want to breed so badly? and she maybe to small still to tell the sex how big is she? the pellet bedding in the background is really bad to it's to dry i would use coconut coir or eco earth i think it's called its compressed blocks that you dissolve into water

 

[yillt]

I know. Today I am ordering some coco coir. On eBay it says coco coir is for plants too. Is that ok? Thanks for all the tips. I don't actually want to breed so badly now but I just want to know that sometime in the future I can breed her/him.

 

[yillt]

I just want to get the right info about breeding as it is very important to handle it correctly. Also I don't want Tilly getting hurt by a big male and I just wanted to know how old she has to be to breed incase I get a maleI don't want her getting pregnant then not being able to cope with the eggs inside her.But From what I've heard I think a male wouldn't get along with my Tort.

 

[naturalman91]

I just want to get the right info about breeding as it is very important to handle it correctly. Also I don't want Tilly getting hurt by a big male and I just wanted to know how old she has to be to breed incase I get a maleI don't want her getting pregnant then not being able to cope with the eggs inside her.But From what I've heard I think a male wouldn't get along with my Tort.

hmmm you just raised a good question i have now which is it possible for the tort to get impregnated before there body could handle the eggs

as for getting a male yea males are normally aggressive when it comes to mating and with only 2 there would be no one else to displace the aggression on so the smaller one would suffer

 

[yillt]

Ok thank you so much for all your help. I will not mate my tortoise for at least another 2 years and if I get a male I will buy a separate enclosure. Also I just ordered the coco coir substrate stuff. It is quite expensive. £20 I think that is way to much for tortoise bedding. Thanks again.

 

[Yvonne G]

I think Tilly is male.

Breeding tortoises isn't like breeding dogs or cats, where you take the 'stud' to the female for a breeding then take the stud back home. Any experienced tortoise keeper will want to quarantine any tortoise before putting them together. And the quarantine period lasts anywhere from 3 months to 6 months.

The ideal situation would be for you to have one male and two females in a large outdoor habitat.

Tortoises reach sexual maturity when they are appx. 5 or 6 years old. Females won't lay eggs unless conditions are right. This is very hard to achieve in an indoor habitat.

In my opinion, you should just sit back and enjoy Tilly and don't worry about breeding him. Sometime down the road, after you've learned how to care for Tilly and you still want to breed marginated tortoises, then buy a couple of females, quarantine them and set the three tortoises up in a safe, well-planted outdoor habitat.

The female tortoise digs a hole in the ground, deposits the eggs, covers up the hole then goes away and never goes back to the eggs. When the babies hatch they're on their own. If you put them into the same habitat as the big tortoises they might get hurt or even killed. They have to be kept separate.

 

[yillt]

Thanks I will have to change Tilly's name.

 

[wiccan_chicken]

If you think the coco cor is too expensive try mixing it with top soil from anywhere, it's usually pretty cheep for such a large bag and is mainly used to filling holes. It's easily kept moist and will compliment the cor nicely.

I wouldn't worry about looking into breeding just yet, research the care and needs of Tilly and learn the sex of your tort before you consider anything. Get a good diet down, a good enclosure, and make sure Tilly is a happy tort before you go looking into making more torts. I've had my girl Vodka for a year now and I've not looked into the procedures of hibernation let alone breeding! I'm still learning nutrition and care.

Having a tort is a huge commitment and unless you have the space for four torts and the money, I wouldn't recommend making more as you might be stuck with them. Lets say five eggs per female, you have three females and only four buyers. You have 11 new babies. Plus the original 4. Thats basically how many babies you hatched minus one.

 

[yillt]

Ok thanks. Do you have any name requests for Tilly . As she is probably a boy. Do you think she looks like a boy by the photos.

 

[wiccan_chicken]

If Tilly is a boy why not Tiller? From a favorite book of mine Ruby Holler. I'm not sure to me Tilly looks like a girl but I have a russian and a boxie, no experience with other torts.

 

[yillt]

Yes I THINK SHE LOOKS FEMALE TO. Oh well I am sure that the experts are right.