Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are they being imported any longer. The reason I ask is, two years ago, we acquired a trio a couple years ago. This week both females laid for us. We are incubating the eggs @ 86-87F, as per advice, any better advice?

There is a total of 7 large eggs(for their size)

My condolences to Jon Behlers family and all who knew him. I was fortunate to get to meet him. I am very sorry to hear of his passing, the herp world, lost a good one. FR

Those guys are not commonly bred at all.

They do seem to like it hot and dry so Tucson or Lizardville whould probably be ideal.

I've gotten eggs but no nesting as many keepers of this species/form experience. The eggs are typicaly the size of a Hermans egg which is huge for the size of the animal laying them and they typicaly lay more than one or two.

Do you keep them indoors or out and do you cycle temperature wise?

Nice.

>>Are they being imported any longer. The reason I ask is, two years ago, we acquired a trio a couple years ago. This week both females laid for us. We are incubating the eggs @ 86-87F, as per advice, any better advice?
>>
>>
>> There is a total of 7 large eggs(for their size)
>>
>>
>>
>> My condolences to Jon Behlers family and all who knew him. I was fortunate to get to meet him. I am very sorry to hear of his passing, the herp world, lost a good one. FR
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Congratulations on your breeding success, this is not a common one. We will be anxious to hear if/when they hatch, and will learn from your experience. Many people have reported difficulty acclimating this form, atleast compared to other forms of T. graeca. Well done, and I am happy to see you share on this forum. Good luck with the eggs, Vic

and team photographer. They are my sons, he does the daily care. I pipe up every now and again, but he makes all the important decisions.

We keep them outside once the night time temps start getting around sixty F. or there abouts. That means the day time temps are already hot. And yes, they are in my oldest circular monitor cage. My son plants sod and gives them boards(retes boards to hide and burrow under). He normally feeds an assortment of leafy greens(I often pick up spring mix for him) The exact diet I am not sure off.

In the winter he brings them in and this winter keeps them in a med. turtleland tub. I built plex tops(really bad ones) and the tops are on a rack I first designed for mertens monitors. He has successfully bred spotteds in the other tubs, and now is working on those and chinese box turtles. which are really nice too. He also breeds Sulcatta torts too(outside). And red eared sliders(in our pond), and we took a R.p.manni egg to full term then I let it get too dry(my fault) did I mention, I do the egg hatching thing. Turtle and tort eggs are bizarre.

The odd part to us was they successfully bred indoors and in rather barren conditions. Dirt, deeper in the land part of the tub, and shallow in the water part. Again there are boards to hide under and a walk in water dish.

He noticed the first female test digging(a sign of no proper nesting). So I recomended to my son to fix up the deeper dirt and place a lite over it, as the test digging was directly under the lite. But I was to late, he had already done that. Then the female immediately nested under the lite in the deeper dirt. I then mentioned that he should keep an eye on the second female. The next day, he said, dad your right, the second one is digging. I moistened up the dirt the next day, but she only test dug, my son moisten up the dirt the following day and she laid.

The first female laid 4 large eggs for their size. the second female which is slightly smaller laid 3, her eggs were slightly larger then the first. I have a friend who breeds lots of torts and has hatched one golden, she recomended 86 to 87F to produce females, the top shelf of our incubator room is 86F most of the time. So there they sit.

We were very lucky to see and photograph the first laying. It was very very comical. In our experience(very limited) it stresses the torts by watching them. So my son said dad, we better leave. I then said, her butt is flitching, and he said, she pulled her head in like the spotteds do when they lay an egg. And bam, she shot out the first eggs, which I got pics of as it just started to come out, and then most of the way out. So we left and came back after she covered the nest.

As the varaniphiles know, I am a firm believer of behavior and I fell its important to allow females to complete their nesting and not be disturbed. So we did not bother the second female.

I hope they are fertile, the males breeds them off and on, all the stinking time. Hes bangs them like a machine gun(pre-mating), and when mating he squeaks, it really really cracks me up. I have really enjoyed these torts. Thanks FR

Thanks Frank,

Not many people take the time and I really apreciate it.
I would think those guys would do just what they did in a setup similar to the way you keep your dryer monitors. My guys did not start breeding and laying eggs until I brought them indoors. I'm hoping to get some fertile eggs next year.

>>and team photographer. They are my sons, he does the daily care. I pipe up every now and again, but he makes all the important decisions.
>>
>> We keep them outside once the night time temps start getting around sixty F. or there abouts. That means the day time temps are already hot. And yes, they are in my oldest circular monitor cage. My son plants sod and gives them boards(retes boards to hide and burrow under). He normally feeds an assortment of leafy greens(I often pick up spring mix for him) The exact diet I am not sure off.
>>
>> In the winter he brings them in and this winter keeps them in a med. turtleland tub. I built plex tops(really bad ones) and the tops are on a rack I first designed for mertens monitors. He has successfully bred spotteds in the other tubs, and now is working on those and chinese box turtles. which are really nice too. He also breeds Sulcatta torts too(outside). And red eared sliders(in our pond), and we took a R.p.manni egg to full term then I let it get too dry(my fault) did I mention, I do the egg hatching thing. Turtle and tort eggs are bizarre.
>>
>> The odd part to us was they successfully bred indoors and in rather barren conditions. Dirt, deeper in the land part of the tub, and shallow in the water part. Again there are boards to hide under and a walk in water dish.
>>
>> He noticed the first female test digging(a sign of no proper nesting). So I recomended to my son to fix up the deeper dirt and place a lite over it, as the test digging was directly under the lite. But I was to late, he had already done that. Then the female immediately nested under the lite in the deeper dirt. I then mentioned that he should keep an eye on the second female. The next day, he said, dad your right, the second one is digging. I moistened up the dirt the next day, but she only test dug, my son moisten up the dirt the following day and she laid.
>>
>> The first female laid 4 large eggs for their size. the second female which is slightly smaller laid 3, her eggs were slightly larger then the first. I have a friend who breeds lots of torts and has hatched one golden, she recomended 86 to 87F to produce females, the top shelf of our incubator room is 86F most of the time. So there they sit.
>>
>> We were very lucky to see and photograph the first laying. It was very very comical. In our experience(very limited) it stresses the torts by watching them. So my son said dad, we better leave. I then said, her butt is flitching, and he said, she pulled her head in like the spotteds do when they lay an egg. And bam, she shot out the first eggs, which I got pics of as it just started to come out, and then most of the way out. So we left and came back after she covered the nest.
>>
>> As the varaniphiles know, I am a firm believer of behavior and I fell its important to allow females to complete their nesting and not be disturbed. So we did not bother the second female.
>>
>> I hope they are fertile, the males breeds them off and on, all the stinking time. Hes bangs them like a machine gun(pre-mating), and when mating he squeaks, it really really cracks me up. I have really enjoyed these torts. Thanks FR
-----
Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

As I had no idea what they were. The cool areas are in the high fifties to low sixties F. The hottest area is 115F and most areas are in the seventies. There are hot spots, 60watt bulbs in a metal fixture over a hole in the plexi.

Any guesses on aprox. time of incubation? Thanks

Considering taht there are probably not and STD studies on this form of Testudo, I'd suggest the 86F with a 1 or 2 degree variance towards the high side. This should give you both males and females.

I believe somebody in the WCT has hatched them out but I would think 90 days is a good guess based on other Testudo.

One point I like to stress with folks used to leather type reptiles is that it is always good to incubate tortois eggs on the dry side. The safest method I found is 100% humidity and a dry incubation medium.

>>As I had no idea what they were. The cool areas are in the high fifties to low sixties F. The hottest area is 115F and most areas are in the seventies. There are hot spots, 60watt bulbs in a metal fixture over a hole in the plexi.
>>
>> Any guesses on aprox. time of incubation? Thanks
-----
Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Sound like your doing doing a really good job.

Over the past year, I've hatched 11 Golden greek torts. The average pre-incubation egg weight has been 20g. The average incubation time has been 68 days. Max incubation time was 73 days and min incubation time was 64 days. Cluch size has ranged from 3 to 6 eggs.

Eggs were incubated at 86-87F. All hatchlings have perfect scutes and no deformities. It is still too early to say what sex they are.

I added 30g of water to 175g of vermiculite for the first clutch and just added later clutches to the same container in the incubater. I spray a little water, away from the eggs, on the vermiculite around twice a month, and spray each egg a little after a hatchling has broken through the egg shell. Overall this is dry compared to other torts but seems to work well.

I keep the hatchlings warm and moist to promote smooth shell growth.

Keep an eye on your egg laying females. They may produce another clutch around 30 days after the first. I had one female lay 3 eggs on 11/23/05, another 3 eggs on 12/23/05, and than another 3 eggs on 1/19/06!

Also, make sure your egg laying females are getting lots of calcium. Mine love Turnip Greens which happen to have more calcium than many other types of greens.

Have your eggs chalked over or turned chalk white compared with the pinkish white they are when they are laid. If so, it is a good sign they will hatch.

Let us know what happens,

John

That is exactly what I was looking for.

We have hatched some turtle and other types of torts eggs. What is confusing is that "Whitening up thing". Consider, I have hatched all sort of repties eggs and on a very consistant basis(for 44years). I have had eggs incubating 24/7, 365 without a break, year-a-round, for 15 strait years. But those dang turtly type eggs can be laid white, or laid clearish, or banded, then turn white later or not and still hatch. Our first clutch of Redears, were brown clearish, all dented up, slimey and full of ants. And every stinking egg hatched. If those eggs were varanid or snake eggs, I would have thrown them out. Tort eggs do not seem as radical, but they too are not so consistant as my normal easy varanid eggs(most people think they are hard to hatch)

I do incubate on the dry side, had problems with some turtles. But so far not a problem with torts. I have a incubator room. And that does make a huge difference.

Direction if hear(heated air) has far more effect on condensation, than degrees of humidity. With incubators, the direction of heated air(top, botton, side) draws condensation in a particular direction. With a room incubator this is highly reduced(mass).

Also, I mentioned to my son, to feed them up, as they both appeared to "want" to produce more clutches. Keeping monitors(the muliti-clutch kings) I have learned to tell which females will. The behavior just before laying and immediately after is important. Both his females continually fed between test digging, and immediately after laying, as well as went right to heat. Females that are not going to have another clutch, tend to have a lesser appeitite and less need for heat. Again thanks for the info.