I have aquired a female russian tort and she has been doing alot of digging, could this be egg behavior? she has much deeper substrate now and she is trying to dig everywhere. i aquired her yesterday could this just be stress? if this is egg behavior please let me know as soon as possible. at the pet shop enclosure she was with 2 males and another female. she also emptyed her bowls and it looked like there was undigested food, what does that mean?
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new female
banjobert
May 28, 2007 05:52 PM
Replies (4)
banjobert
May 28, 2007 06:01 PM
i alo forgot to mention she's dug two holes already each in a diffrent corner
tglazie
May 29, 2007 06:41 AM
Get the animal checked by a vet. For an extra charge, they can run an X-ray for you to find out if the dear girl is gravid. She may be egg bound, if she is passing undigested food, but this is not so severe as to keep her from eating entirely, I hope. This is the time of year these animals typically lay, so it is a possibility, though I've never had a newly purchased animal lay before. Either way, express your concerns to a vet. They can generally answer any questions you may have. She could be trial nesting, but more likely she's stressed and is making an attempt at doing what always came naturally. Does she have adequate shelter? When she digs a hole, does she remain in it, or leave it? If she's leaving it and not using it as a hiding space, egg laying behavior is probably an apt description. You'll just not know unless she lays eggs or a vet sees her.
T.G.
banjobert
May 29, 2007 08:52 AM
what is healthy weight for a female and a healthy weght for a male?
tglazie
May 31, 2007 05:50 AM
This depends largely on size. Considering the animals coming into the states right now (four to five inches being typical), anything between five hundred and one thousand grams is normal. Above that is strange (possibly the result of eggs), and below that is a sign of dehydration or some other malnourished state. However, I have seen some smaller, completely healthy specimins begin their captive life around three hundred grams. Under a normal feeding regimin, however, they did ofcourse gain weight, even if it took several months to see the result.
T.G.
