Mountain tortoise owners:

[Millerlite]

It's been pretty slow on this section, just wanted to start a thread see how everyone's mountain tortoises are doing? Mine are doing great and are in a growth spurt, I got them outside 24/7 now and they just love it. Ill get a few pictures soon. Share with us how your mt. Torts are doing!

 

[Itort]

Mine have been out 24/7 for about three weeks. Busy pruning the mock orange, feasting on grape leaves and mulberry and awaiting raspberries. They growing like weeds and enjoying their daily "rain shower" from the sprinkler.

 

[tortadise]

I put mine out late march april if the weather ia good. They can handle the cold pretty well.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using TortForum mobile app

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, mine live outside 24/7/365. They do come out and roam around even in the coldest weather.

My youngest girl nested and presented me with a few eggs that are in the incubator, but the bigger girl just worked the nest in a hap-hazard fashion, pooped out one egg in the waterer, and now has abandoned all nesting activities. I'm hoping she doesn't get egg bound.

My two babies are doing well. Emmie is about 4 years old now, and is very heavy. She eats real good. The younger one is probably about 2, and is still pretty shy, but if I put her food at the mouth of her hide she eats good too.

So far no nesting activity with the Mee.

 

[Millerlite]

Well, mine live outside 24/7/365. They do come out and roam around even in the coldest weather.

My youngest girl nested and presented me with a few eggs that are in the incubator, but the bigger girl just worked the nest in a hap-hazard fashion, pooped out one egg in the waterer, and now has abandoned all nesting activities. I'm hoping she doesn't get egg bound.

My two babies are doing well. Emmie is about 4 years old now, and is very heavy. She eats real good. The younger one is probably about 2, and is still pretty shy, but if I put her food at the mouth of her hide she eats good too.

So far no nesting activity with the Mee.

How are the eggs doing? Looking all fertile? Hopefully the big girl will stop eggs even if above ground better then egg bound.

Emmie is the one that your sister had te first year and you ended up taking it back right? I just remember mine are the same age as emmie, how big is she now?

Kyle

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, Emmie is the one that Maggie head-started for me. Here she is in her enclosure:

and here she is next to a 50lb or so female:

I weighed me holding her, then I weighed me without her, and came up with 5lbs, however, when I tried to put her on my scale by herself, she didn't register. So I would say appx. 5lbs.

 

[Millerlite]

Wow she has grown quite a bit. Mine arnt that big yet mine have been growing a lot this year tho. Can't wait for mine to get even bigger!

 

[emysbreeder]

It's been pretty slow on this section, just wanted to start a thread see how everyone's mountain tortoises are doing? Mine are doing great and are in a growth spurt, I got them outside 24/7 now and they just love it. Ill get a few pictures soon. Share with us how your mt. Torts are doing!

Yep they take off when outside, at around 5 years + or - they get the dubble wide look, they will really take off after that stage and put on some big time weight that year and have a long growth rate .......Well we have been working hard cleaning up and planting grass after the flood. Everything is back to normal, everything is green on the ground instead of mud. All the females built new nest and have layed eggs. I had one that layed before the flood and hers are hatching now as i type. I sold her as a yearling and then got her back around 19 yrs later. She is huge and grew up in N.Calif. I also got two clutches of emys emys from my early e.e layers. One clutch was a mess. Broken eggs that leaked all over most of the rest, its bad news when this happens as the egg inners are imposable to clean off. The other is a C.B. female and although small they look good. I have others that will be hatching (I hope) over the next 6-8 weeks. The breeders are all working on 2014 as it is HOT and I have a killer rain maker. Every pen gets water that shoots 35 ft.up and 40' out like a heavy rain. You can here it hitting the palm froms. It really pulls the trigger to the magic bullit on the males for talk'in trash and wild tortoise sex. A lot of grunting and growning go'in on! emysbreeder Vic

 

[Millerlite]

That's all great news Vic. Always great to hear about your heard. And that's awesome you got the tortoise back after 19 years wow very cool. I plan to build a rain type sprinkler system later this summer. Need to get one up again they sure love the rain

How long are the incubating times for these tortoises both the Mee and Mep. ?

 

[algoroth1]

It's been pretty slow on this section, just wanted to start a thread see how everyone's mountain tortoises are doing? Mine are doing great and are in a growth spurt, I got them outside 24/7 now and they just love it. Ill get a few pictures soon. Share with us how your mt. Torts are doing!

Sorry I didn't see this post before I put up my photos of Ponce separately. After reading Vic's reply, I'm wondering if these guys have different growth rates depending on whether they live outside all year long or not. My mee is developing nicely during his first year. He's lived outside on our porch (in an open-topped enclosure) since being a hatchling.

 

[emysbreeder]

That's all great news Vic. Always great to hear about your heard. And that's awesome you got the tortoise back after 19 years wow very cool. I plan to build a rain type sprinkler system later this summer. Need to get one up again they sure love the rain

How long are the incubating times for these tortoises both the Mee and Mep. ?

.........They will start piping at 64 days at 84F+ or - 2F. " The sphere has erupted, a prehistoric beast is born"* quote from the manifesto of Defying Destiny Mt.Tortoise reserve. vic

 

[harris]

Life is good for the crew up here in Ohio. They've been outside since early May. They're 6 + years old now. One thing I'm really starting to notice, are the girls are much more outgoing and braver than the boys. Especially this year. Love these guys!

 

[RussianTortoiseCraze123]

Mine is doing great! He now eats 2 meals a day and is growing like a weed! Trying to keep the humidity has been tough, but we are making it work! Glad to here very ones torts are doing great! cant wait untill my Pokey is big like

 

[tortadise]

Life is good for the crew up here in Ohio. They've been outside since early May. They're 6 + years old now. One thing I'm really starting to notice, are the girls are much more outgoing and braver than the boys. Especially this year. Love these guys!

I have noticed through the years of mine this as well. A true statement with manouria is as follows; "Woman are nesters, and men are gathers". I see a esvery intelligent presence in both behaviors characteristics of each male and female. But the female for sure portrays a much more established role in observations in surrounding when they come of age. They have a purpose for the "more active" attitude. Nests is all the female really cares about when they start hitting sexual maturity. Given that they have a safe, secure livable situation of course. Best species by far I have to agree. Beyond ancient world intelligence, and remarkable lifestyle they portray.

 

[emysbreeder]

Life is good for the crew up here in Ohio. They've been outside since early May. They're 6 + years old now. One thing I'm really starting to notice, are the girls are much more outgoing and braver than the boys. Especially this year. Love these guys!

I have noticed through the years of mine this as well. A true statement with manouria is as follows; "Woman are nesters, and men are gathers". I see a esvery intelligent presence in both behaviors characteristics of each male and female. But the female for sure portrays a much more established role in observations in surrounding when they come of age. They have a purpose for the "more active" attitude. Nests is all the female really cares about when they start hitting sexual maturity. Given that they have a safe, secure livable situation of course. Best species by far I have to agree. Beyond ancient world intelligence, and remarkable lifestyle they portray.

.........I've never seen any males gather anything but they will sometimes build a small nest like spot as if to "stimulate nest building in females" kinda of like "can you do this" because I'm ready if you are, so if you have eggs lay them so we can work on next years eggs. Both sexes are very calculating in terms of temps. By this they are in touch and can predict the seasons, weather, and a place to build. I see females scrach the ground cover and smell/read temps a month before building. They will stake out a place close by for weeks a head of building a nest and just watch it day and night before starting. ITS ALL MATH.* Walter Auffenburg. "Oh crap, first Latin, then Greek for torts. now math!!!"* VM. Manouria "a keen awareness of human presence'

 

[gila-91]

Well, mine live outside 24/7/365. They do come out and roam around even in the coldest weather.

Yvonne, I'd be very interested in hearing details about how you have yours set up where they are outdoors year round. Your member profile says you are in Clovis, Ca., I'm in Sacramento, and our climate is nearly identical.

I recently acquired a CB phayrei that is about 8 to 9 inches SCL. I am an experienced reptile keeper (mostly snakes) but have had a variety of aquatic turtles, and Mojave desert and Texas tortoises in the past. I would really like to be successful with this species so any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

 

[gila-91]

Here is a picture of the new addition wandering the backyard.

 

[Yvonne G]

I hate to go into too much detail about my own tortoises here on Kyle's thread.

 

[Millerlite]

I don't mind at all, i made this thread to hear how others tortoises are doing and I love to read any information about this species. My favorite they are so intriguing and hearing about other people mt. Tortoise really show how different each tort can be within the same species, and how smart they are as far as problem solving

 

[Yvonne G]

I have 1.3 Mee with an additional 2.0 intergrade Mee/Mep (with Mee characteristic). They live outside year round and have a heated shed to retreat to in the winter, but they are free to come and go at will. Their yard is fairly large and is well-planted with buddlea (sp?), rose of sharon, fig, citrus, cedar and grass on the ground.

There are 1.2 Mep with an additional 2.0 intergrade Mep/Mee (with Mep characteristic). Because these tortoises are larger, they have a much larger area. They are also outside year round and share the heated shed (divided in the middle to keep them separate) with the Mee. Their yard is also over-planted with buddlea, rose of sharon, fig, heavenly bamboo (this plant grows in their home range, but should not be included for other type tortoise), orange, rose, malva and wax-leaf privet (also on the toxic list).

Inside the shed are pig blankets mounted on the walls, and a large watt red lamp that gets turned on on the coldest nights that hangs down from the middle of the shed.

For summer, there are T-posts down the center of the yards with drip line hanging along them, and sprinkler-type emitters punched in the line about every 5'. On the hottest summer days, when the water is turned on, the drip emitters provide a cool and refreshing mist that lowers the temp in the yards.

I have 0.0.2 Mep that come in during the winter and live in a tort table inside the shed. Their body mass it not big enough to stay warm for any length of time outside in cold weather.

If you ever pass through Fresno/Clovis, I'm more than happy to show you how I have my tortoises set up.