Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It was very chilly here yesterday & Destiny started digging a hole in the ground up against the fence at around 3PM.
I thought OMG she's got eggs again & there isn't enough time before dark & major cold weather for her to finish this.
While she was out I bleached out her home because it was very stinky from her urinating in there.
Usually when I clean her home she sees me do it & she knows what I am doing. She wouldn't stop digging so I thought oh yeah more eggs.
Later at 5:30PM when it was getting very very cold she got out of this burrow & went home. So now I think her reason for doing this was her home was dirty, she didn't like that so gosh darn it she was just going to build a new one!
LOL

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PHRatz

She could have been digging a test nest too Or she could have just realized she IS a sulcata and is supposed to dig! Maybe she read a magazine article about sulcatas sometimes distructive digging habits!

Such a pretty girl. I've I lived somewhere warmer I would love to have a destiny baby.

>>She could have been digging a test nest too Or she could have just realized she IS a sulcata and is supposed to dig! Maybe she read a magazine article about sulcatas sometimes distructive digging habits!
>>
>>Such a pretty girl. I've I lived somewhere warmer I would love to have a destiny baby.

Ok so I found out what she was doing.
It wasn't a test nest.. it was actually A NEST!!! EEK!
On Saturday she got out there & dug some more & then I realized holy cow she's going to lay eggs again.
It was after hours but I called her vet anyway who told me that her first batch of eggs just caved in during that week. They were no good at all.
Well her Dr & I discussed what was going on & then I got out the Holger Vetter book & found a statement that's very interesting.
The books says that often the first batch of eggs are larger than normal and they are often not fertile.
Well her first batch of eggs were HUGE & they were not fertile.. they caved in.
This batch -the eggs are actually smaller.. they may be fertile. Last time she laid 15 eggs, we ended up with 9 that weren't broken.
This time she laid 17 eggs, when I dug them up only 1 was broken.
The vet told me she'd meet me at her hospital on Sunday to put them in the incubabtor so that's what we did.
They are safe & warm in the incubator since last Sunday.
pfffffffffffffffffffft!!!
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PHRatz

Wow interesting about the first eggs being not fertile and bigger. I wonder why, maybe to trick predators? Well, good luck with batch #2 hehe

>>Wow interesting about the first eggs being not fertile and bigger. I wonder why, maybe to trick predators? Well, good luck with batch #2 hehe

If we're really really lucky they won't hatch LOL!
It's hard not to try after she worked so hard though.

BTW my vet told me that a new way to spay & neuter tortoises/turtles has been developed. They can now go in with an endoscope & do the surgery through the cloaca without removing any part of the plastron.
That's great if it's needed in case of dystocia (egg binding), I'm glad to know about it if any emergency ever happened.
Fear of dystocia is the main reason why I NEVER ever wanted Destiny to lay eggs.
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PHRatz