Today something unexpected happened! I woke 2 of my female RTs up from hibernation, and within 45 minutes of being awake, one of them laid an egg!
She has laid eggs before, and my male has definitely covered her. I just didn't expect this because she had laid several months before hibernation, and was showing NO signs of nesting when she slowed down and stopped eating at hibernation time.
I woke her up by placing her in tepid water under the basking light, then slowly warmed the water up by adding warm water. She moved around, drank some, and seemed to enjoy the soak.
Then I moved her out of the bath, and she basked.
After a while I noticed she was pumping and stretching her legs. I just assumed she was going to pass some urates. Then her eyes bugged out and she started making panting sounds - I was initially alarmed that she was having respiratory issues, but then saw that she was pushing out an egg! Here is a picture of the egg coming out:
Since she didn't bother digging a nest, I assume she was just 'dumping' it after holding it inside for that long. I will incubate it anyway though, just in case it is viable. The egg is quite large, at 30g. It will be interesting to see if it chalks over.
Here she is, resting after laying the egg.
I will keep our male away from her for a few weeks. I am hoping he will be interested in my other 4 females once I wake him up from hibernation!
She has laid eggs before, and my male has definitely covered her. I just didn't expect this because she had laid several months before hibernation, and was showing NO signs of nesting when she slowed down and stopped eating at hibernation time.
I woke her up by placing her in tepid water under the basking light, then slowly warmed the water up by adding warm water. She moved around, drank some, and seemed to enjoy the soak.
Then I moved her out of the bath, and she basked.
After a while I noticed she was pumping and stretching her legs. I just assumed she was going to pass some urates. Then her eyes bugged out and she started making panting sounds - I was initially alarmed that she was having respiratory issues, but then saw that she was pushing out an egg! Here is a picture of the egg coming out:
Since she didn't bother digging a nest, I assume she was just 'dumping' it after holding it inside for that long. I will incubate it anyway though, just in case it is viable. The egg is quite large, at 30g. It will be interesting to see if it chalks over.
Here she is, resting after laying the egg.
I will keep our male away from her for a few weeks. I am hoping he will be interested in my other 4 females once I wake him up from hibernation!
Last edited by a moderator: