Russian Tortoise lays eggs 6+ months after male companionship

elf2hats

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Aug 28, 2016
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Front Range of Colorado
About 6 months ago, I bought two female Russian tortoises who had been kept with a male. The seller rescues tortoises and then sells them, and he warned me that they might lay eggs. I've kept them in an indoor enclosure over the Colorado winter, and I took them outside this afternoon to get some natural sun. I put them on top of a large compost pile in a raised garden bed so that I wouldn't lose track of them. About an hour later, I was turning over the compost and was very surprised to find two eggs! Unfortunately, I found this as I shoveled a load of the compost from one area to another, so the eggs definitely experienced some tumbling about.

Questions:
  1. Is it likely that one of my females would lay viable eggs 6 months after companionship with a male?
  2. Given that I accidentally tumbled the eggs about a bit, is there any chance that they'll survive? I have NO idea what their initial orientation was for top/bottom.
  3. How long do you think the eggs (if viable) could survive without an incubator? I wasn't prepared to deal with eggs, and it will take me more than a week to acquire and stabilize an incubator. For now, I placed the eggs in a plastic container on top of moistened coco coir. I'm having a hard time getting the temperature to read above 84F tonight, even though the room temp is about 80F.
Now that the lighter female (1.5 lbs) has laid two eggs, I'm going to keep a closer eye on the bigger female (1.75 lbs) to see if she starts showing signs of laying. BTW, the two females seem to co-exist very peaceably together. I kept them separated for the first ~3 months, but they now share one 4'x4' enclosure and seem compatible.
 

wellington

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Yes they could be viable
Yes they could still survive after a little tumble
Yes they could be fine until an incubator is set up in a week or so if they are kept warm enough.
I would put them inside the Russians heated enclosure and keep the heat up even at night until a proper incubator is set up, unless you have another place to keep them that would keep them warm enough.
 
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