Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I figured someone here would know the answer to this question. Right now I'm working on a breeding project with russian tortoises. I've got two females and one male (but the male is still very young). One of the females I purchased from a breeder ended up being gravid, so I've been rushing to get a good setup for the females so she can lay them.

I've got them in a 150 Gallon Rubbermaid stock tank (roughly 5' long, 3' wide, 30" tall) with about 12" of dirt, closed lid (with a few inches open for ventilation...well, really because the wood I'm using as a lid is a few inches shy). The lighting is mounted in the lid. Right now it's temping out pretty good, but I've been worried that the dirt might be too cold for them to lay in.

The stock tank is up a few inches off of the floor, but it's in my basement, where ambient temps are around 65-68.

Basically, do I need to heat the soil, or is that kind of a non-issue. I know a lot of people here breed monitors in similar setups, so I thought it would be a valid question.

For a little more background info on the project, I just recently determined without a shadow of a doubt that the recently added female is gravid (x-rays), because for the past 6 weeks I noticed her attempting to dig nests in her old cage (which the male now occupies until he's a little bigger), but I couldn't fit more than 5" of soil in the old cage, which is severely insufficient for nesting for a tortoise with a 9" long shell. So she dug a few nests. Usually at 2 week intervals, and I got progressively more nervous that she was gravid, and that my housing situation was subpar. Yesterday I took the plunge and moved them to the basement in a nice big stock tank, so now that she has enough dirt, I want to make sure that the other factors involved are going to be favorable.

Thanks in advance for your help! I wish it was warmer in my climate right now, I could just leave her out in their outdoor enclosure.

Torts nest better on elevate areas, I would make a mound at one end, a 65w flood suspended 8-10in over the mound will do the job nicely.
Reptile Eggs evolved to be heated from above, there embryo sinks to the bottom.

Food, water on the lowest part.

Many keepers keep them in open top and flat ground cages, these usually do not breed torts.

in her old cage it seems like the only time she would dig her nests was when the ground was flat. Whenever I tried to mound some dirt up, she tended to avoid that area. It's worth trying again though, especially now that I really have her setup in a way that it could be done well.

But basically, not bottom heat needed then? The basking lights will be fine? Right now I have a couple of regular light bulbs in clip lamps suspended from the lid of the cage about 6" from the dirt. These get the dirt about 100f or so, and a basking tortoise will of course be closer to the light and therefore warmer. I also have a flourescent bulb to illuminate the center and part of the cool end, and I have a red heat bulb that is on day and night.

Thanks for the information. I've always found your information to be very valuable.

I guess I was doing way better than I thought by moving the female russians into the tub in the basement, and I guess there was also much less to worry about as far as temperature of the dirt (and heating of the dirt for that matter).

Today at around 8:00pm the gravid female deposited her eggs. One of the things that makes me proud of my setup is that many people breeding them right now tend to have the torts just lay the eggs on the surface of the substrate (which I take to mean that they are abandoning them), with the exception of those that keep them outdoors and have the ability to let them nest outdoors. I watched the entire process with my tort. She picked a spot that she really liked (underneath a red heat lamp that sits about 6" above the surface of the dirt...mostly to save energy). She started scraping away the surface of the soil with her hind legs, and then began excavating, using her hind legs almost as we would use our hands. Once she dug about 3-4" into the soil, she started changing the shape of her nesting chamber. To spare the time to explain it in detail, it basically ended up in a shape similar to a flask.

I left her alone for the most part to lay her eggs, but I did come down to find her with one egg halfway out. I noticed also that after laying each egg she would use her hind legs to carefully position it just so.

Such a great experience! It will be even better if the eggs turn out to be fertile. It's days like today that remind me why I'm in the hobby.

Congrats, cheers

It was amazing watching what care she took in burying her eggs.

By the way, I took your husbandry advice from that crazy post (about the monitor with the sulcata), and it's amazing what a difference it made. A tortoise that had been digging 'test nests' for a month and a half, within 24 hours of being put in the new setup, managed to find a good spot and finally lay her eggs.

It's my first experience with any animal laying eggs for me, so I'm really excited.

A most special congrats, enjoy the moment. Cheers

I can't seem to decide what your tortoise is from the picture laying eggs. What species is it? Do you have any more pictures?

I'm pretty happy to be working with russians. I think they're a great species that is misunderstood due to a lack of information. CB specimens tend to do rather well. My male is a CB I've been raising from a hatchling.

I'm excited to see if the eggs are going to turn out any good or not.