Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi --

A couple of weeks back I posted asking about how you would sex a Redfoot tortoise. (It was supposed to be a male and I saw it digging with it's hind legs).

Well my MALE redfoot laid an egg last (just one). I noticed that her cloaca is a bit swollen now (I have seen prolapse in birds and it does not look like that -- just rather like hemmoroids I guess would be the best discription.) I want to get her into the vet to see have her x-rayed to see if there are more eggs inside of her. I was just wondering if the the vent swelling is a normal occurance in tortoises after they have laid.

She is not attempting to lay anymore at this point and has been eating up a storm and is quite mobile. I soaked her this morning and will do so again tonight. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks
Steve

PS -- I put the egg into an incubator (she was housed with other Male redfoots up until 4 months ago so there is always a possibility). Tmem is 82 degrees and humidity around 70 percent. Is this right? I am a bird guy so this reptile stuff is all new to me. Similar but DIFFERENT!! : )

Sometimes tortoises have eggs retained from the previous years. They don't normally lay these in nests but who knows.
If she is acting normal and everything else is normal I wouldn't worry about it. A true prolapse would be very obvious.
Ed

She has since gone pretty much back to normal. Iam incubating the egg to see what happens and I am bringing her into the vet on Monday to see if she is emptied completely.

Steve