Need advice - dwarf female redfoot starting to dig and lay

Mantissa3

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Hi All:

Does anybody have experience with a very small-bodied tortoise - mine is likely characterized as a "dwarf" in the vet medicine profession, due to early trauma and illness, so she just hasn't grown as large as others her age.

She is very likely around 7 years old now, and has laid one broken, very soft-shelled egg that I found trampled in her hide box one morning. That was a few weeks ago.

She is eating like a horse, running around the tortoise-planted gardens all day, all seems normal- and she is digging practice nests and holes with her back legs- one very deep.

I'm afraid for her, and I don't know whether dwarfism means she will be laying small eggs- or whether her tiny body will not be able to lay eggs that are normal-sized and she will become egg bound and impacted.

Her anal scutes are not very far apart, in keeping with the small scale of her body.

Will someone please advise what to keep an eye on with her- and if you know, whether dwarfism means she will produce small eggs and I shouldn't worry so much about huge eggs trying to be laid by my tiny girl?

Thank you in advance!
 

ZEROPILOT

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I have had a stunted, tiny Redfoot in my care. But I've never had one lay eggs.
I'd be concerned about that as I'm strongly assuming that the eggs would be normal sized.
Most RF eggs aren't very large.
How tiny is she?
 

Mantissa3

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10 Year Member!
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San Francisco Bay Area
I have had a stunted, tiny Redfoot in my care. But I've never had one lay eggs.
I'd be concerned about that as I'm strongly assuming that the eggs would be normal sized.
Most RF eggs aren't very large.
How tiny is she?


Thank you for your response! She's about half the physical size of her nest mate but she is now heavy and healthy. The one who is digging and who laid the soft-shelled egg is about 9 pounds, the nest mate is nearly 12 pounds, but is about 11-13" SCL, whereas my little dwarf is around 8" SCL, but her anal scutes are SO close together that I cannot figure out how she will ever lay normally....

I'm so worried about her right now- it's her first spring time that she's exhibited this nesting behavior.
 
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