Of the two species, Manouria emys emys and Manouria emys phayrei, the Mee is the smaller. My long term captive, but wild caught female is old, of unknown age, and normally weighs 25lbs. She is now at 26.8, but I think that's because she has eggs. The male is young yet, also wild caught, but probably about 10 or 11 years old and 13.4lbs. He's of an ok size compared to her, for breeding. The female had an accidental breeding with the young Mep male appx. 13 or 14 years ago that resulted in 49 eggs, 19 of which were fertile. She hasn't laid eggs or been bred since then. She's been with Duc, the current male, for appx. 4 years, but he's just now big enough to breed her. She started nest building last Monday. Funny thing about it was, Duc started the nest building before the female, Maggie (short for Magumba - she came to me with the name). So he got her interested in it, and she joined in. As soon as she started scraping the substrate, he quit. I bought 6 large bags of cypress mulch, and emptied one in there for her. Whenever that bag had been used, I'd empty another. I figured 6 would be enough. Yesterday I put out the last bag and this is what the outside of the shed looks like this a.m. She seems to be finished with it.
As it started to get tall inside the shed, I placed a small piece of plywood over the top so they couldn't climb out:
And under the plywood it looks like this:
The nest that she built the first time was appx. 3' diameter and appx. 2' high.
This one is only about a foot and a half high, but she seems to be finished with it. So far no eggs, but time will tell.
As it started to get tall inside the shed, I placed a small piece of plywood over the top so they couldn't climb out:
And under the plywood it looks like this:
The nest that she built the first time was appx. 3' diameter and appx. 2' high.
This one is only about a foot and a half high, but she seems to be finished with it. So far no eggs, but time will tell.