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I've had a pair of pancake tortoises for the past three and a half years. After a year, the female started laying eggs every three months; however, after about four eggs she stop laying. She would continue digging every three to four months, but never lay an egg. This fall I noticed she was calcium deficient and added new UVB lights. This didn't help much, and her health continued to decline. Her shell softened and she became very lethargic, refusing to eat. Over Christmas break, I took her to a reptile vet who said she had a slim chance of surviving. The vet gave us a calcium/vitamin D supplement and a food powder. We started force feeding her, but I had to go back to school. My parents continued to take care of her, and she has almost fully recovered. After about four weeks of treatment, she laid an egg. About a week later, she laid another egg. And this past week she laid a third egg. My question is, were all of these eggs inside of her for the past year, or have they been formed because of the extra calcium. I find it hard to believe that she had three very large fully formed eggs inside of her at one time.
Any thoughts? My dad still thinks she could have another in her because her stomach still seems puffy.
What I find amazing is that the male has done extremely well, and he will mate with the female three or four times a week if we let him.

Unless the eggs were over calicified (thick and bumpy shelled) I don't think they were retained eggs.

You can be sure by having her xrayed.

I sprinkle calcium carbonate at every feeding because it seems that the calcium requirement seems to be very high in general.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

What form of calcium carbonate do you use

>>What form of calcium carbonate do you use

I use a powdered calcium carbonate that was originally used as a paint thickener. I learned about it on a good list (at least it used to be a good list) about 5 years ago. The company is now packaging it for the food and medical industry.

It is 99.something % pure calcium carbonate.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Where do you get it from?? Im sick of squid bones!!!

Question: Are the eggs fertile?
And, have you tried keeping the male away from the female for a long time...say a year or so? This might help her get back to a 'normal' routine.

Female tortoises, and some other reptiles as well, can retain eggs for months or even a year or more. She may very well have been carrying the eggs for a year. Usually the retained eggs will be larger than average and sometimes have calcified crust on them, but not always. I don't know what your setup is like, but the main reason tortoises voluntarily retain eggs is because they can't find a suitable place to dig a nest. They can be very picky about the place they lay the eggs and it is not uncommon for them to retain the eggs until they find a place they feel more comfortable with. Another thing that can happen is they become eggbound. That is when the female cannot pass the egg for various reasons and finally gives up trying and then becomes very, very sick. She may even die if the egg isn't removed or if she can't find a way to it. Lack of enough calcium is a common cause because a too-soft egg is very hard to move down the ovaduct. An egg that is too large is another cause of eggbinding. A temperature that is too cold is also a very common cause of eggbinding. I'm not saying that is for sure what happened to your pancake, but it's a possibility.

If she was that sick that recently, I would STRONGLY suggest that you seperate her from the male and discourage her from laying eggs until next year. Egg laying takes a lot of energy and minerals from a female animal and it could be fatal to her if she continues to lay after such a serious illness.

She has been seperated from the male for the past two months and will remain seperated from the male for a while. My parents aid the eggs appeared normals; the same as her old fertile eggs. I don't think the problem is the set up or her feeling comfortable, I just think it was the calcium deficiency. The doctor said that as the animal becomes more and more deficient, all of the bones and muscles in the body become softer and weeker. She was therefore unable to pass the eggs because she wasn't strong enough.
It is amazing how quickly an animal can turn around if it really wants to live. She is recovering very nicely, has gained a considerable amount of weight considering the three eggs she laid, and is quite active.