RT Breeding Logistics

[Westwood]

Hey all,
I was wondering if I could get some advice/tips from anyone who has a history of breeding Russians.
1. I know that it's generally recommended that you have between 3-5 female for every male when you set up a "colony" for breeding, but I was wondering if the same held true even if you didn't intend to keep the male and the female in the same enclosure all year?
i.e., Would it be okay to have only one female if you only left her and the male together for an hour or so at a specific time in order to produce eggs? Or would this stress her out even more since she wouldn't be familiar with him AND wouldn't have any other female to share the attention?

2. What would you guys say the "success rate" of your breeding programs is? For instance, if your tortoise lays 4 eggs, how usually hatch? Obviously, I know this can vary a lot depending on how healthy she is and her size and so on, but i was wondering if anyone had a rough estimate?

3. I know males almost always fight when housed together, no matter what. But I was wondering if females raised together were more likely to get along than if you just shoved two of them together? Do they get along, or do they get aggressive as they age?

Thanks!

 

[biochemnerd808]

I am a very, very fresh breeder (ha, I can only say that now because my very first clutch hatched), so everything I learned I got from Melissa or Tom, or Tim/Robin, GBtortoises or Russiantortoise.net or a slew of other wonderful people who have shared their knowledge. So please do not think that I am sharing as an expert... simply happened to be online and saw your question.

1.) If you keep your male and female separate, and only place them together a few times in the Spring, you might have success, IF the female and male are both of breeding age. In the wild, they wander about and briefly intersect, mate, and move on. So this wouldn't be too different. You may have to hibernate them in order to induce breeding behavior. There's plenty of resources on that online - I used refrigerator hibernation. I also noticed that mine didn't breed until a) I had a nice outdoor enclosure and b) I hibernated them. Size wasn't so much an issue, as the female is about 7" long and has been for a while. The male might not have been mature.
Now, even if you did have a group of RTs, that doesn't guarantee breeding success. My first male is only ever interested in 1 female, and she has laid fertile hatching eggs this year. He completely ignores the rest of his harem. Even when placed exclusively with the others, he will ignore them. Then I put his 'main squeeze' with him, and presto- mating! I have since gotten another male, so I have 2 males and 6 females... my guess is I won't get eggs from the others for a while, since the new male is quite young.

2.) Following the protocol Melissa told me (@kanalomele ) so far my hatch rate has been 100%. Ha, statistically, that doesn't say much though... since the first clutch of 3 eggs is hatching now, and the second clutch, laid 2 weeks later, is developing, but I don't know yet who will hatch or not. I picked the eggs up after nesting was complete, marked the top, and put them in the incubator. I incubated in bone dry substrate, eggs placed sideways into the substrate, and I didn't touch the eggs AT ALL. I candled them without touching. I placed 2 containers of water into the incubator, resulting in 80% humidity. I used a standard Hovabator incubator, with a Hydrofarm thermostat to control the temps, since the dial thermostat was not reliable. I piled blankets around the incubator, leaving only the little air holes uncovered. This helped prevent temp fluctuations. Temps were set to 89, and I saw brief fluctuations from 88-90.5 over the course of incubation. The first egg hatched after 64 days, the second one at 72 days, and now one is hatching RIGHT NOW at 74 days.

3.) Keeping 2 of any testudo species is a recipe for disaster. Female RTs care territorial little buggers, too, and will imitate mounting and mating and will bully and bite. Others will bully more subtly, sitting on the food, hogging the best basking spot, etc. - IF you are going to house females together, it should be at least 3... never 2. And even then, prepare to have a temporary 'time out' area set up for the bully of the day. I have observed my smallest female (5.5") mounting one of the larger females (8"), just to bully her. Good grief, they are scrappy girls. Size doesn't seem to dictate who will be boss. My female Timmy, who is also the only one who has laid eggs so far, is the absolute boss over all of them, even though 3 of the girls are bigger than she is. She is the first one awake in the morning, and she struts all over the tortoise yard, like a little sentry. She demands first access to the food, and she is the last to dig down to go to bed.

I hope this helps. I had a lot of the same questions you have, and I am still learning myself - just thought it might help to pass along a few of the things other wonderful, more experienced, tortoise keepers have shared with me.