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I have a female russian tortoise that I baught from some on the other day. They told me she is pregnant. He showed me on the under part of her shell towards the side that she is bulging out, that it was her eggs inside her doing this.

Does anyone know about that? Do they buldge and if so, where? why?

Russians lay few eggs, so they are usually positioned more towards the center of the tortoise, and therefore it can be difficult to feel eggs even when palpating for them.

The only way to know for sure is x-rays or if she happens to lay them. By the way, most of the time russians won't lay unless they have enough dirt (I had to use 10" of dirt for mine to lay, and that was learned through trial and error). If their back legs touch the bottom of the enclosure, they will think it is a big rock and quit digging there. I haven't really heard of russians getting eggbound, but it is possible if they really can't find a good nesting site. Most of the time they will eventually give up and lay the eggs above ground, where it is easy for them to break if you don't find them in time.

I actually had a similar situation with one of my females this past summer. I bought a very large female (about 10" from a breeder who was having bad luck with breeding her. After I had her about a month she started digging test nests with her hind legs, but at first I only had her on 4" of dirt, which was far from sufficient. I then tried 5" of dirt, and 6" of dirt, all the way to 7" of dirt, and she kept digging, hitting the bottom, and not laying. That's when I gave up on the old enclosure and moved the females to a cattle trough in my basement with around 10" of dirt evenly distributed. She laid them beneath a red heat lamp that kept the surface temperature of the soil pretty high (over 100f), and the dirt was somewhat moist so it held the nest well.

I would recomend either putting her in an enclosure with ample dirt (generally as deep as 3/4's of the shell length plus the length of their legs is fine, but always go deeper when possible), or taking her to a vet to get x-rays. If she has eggs they will be easily seen in the x-rays.

Where do you live? Maybe someone can help you find a good vet in your area.

Also, can you be a little more clear about where the eggs are 'showing'. You can sometimes palpate the female to see if she has eggs, but you usually have to stick a finger gently into the little cavity before the hind leg and feel around for them. I couldn't feel any in mine before she laid, but she is a very big russian.

I've got both eggs in the incubator right now. It's been exactly two weeks since they've been laid and so far it looks like they are fertile.

Just another post because I thought this deserved its own.

Was he palpating the female to show you the eggs, or was he simply presenting her to you and showing that there is clearly bulges where the eggs should be?

I would do some research on palpating and see if you can figure it out for yourself, but like I said, it can be tricky, because most of the time the eggs tend to stay towards the center of russians (at least that's what I experienced and what I've heard from other breeders...if anyone else has had a different experience, please post it).