Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I have a group of RT. Most of the animals have reached the breeding size but I have infertility problems. They are kept all the active period outside and hibernate them in a garage (they bury in autum but I don´t let them hibernate outside because I amb afraid of rainy winters). They are fed a natural diet (wild plants taken from edible plants lists plus some supermarket greens). They look healthy and are active, but most females don´t make eggs. I wonder if they need aestivation as part of the reproductive cicle.In July-August, when plants are dry some bury completely, I only know they are there because of the removed earth. It´s different from the retiring holes they make in spring.I think the stimulus to enter aestivation in the heat and the drying of the food stuff. It´s possible that if I didn´t offer food they would all bury.
Has anyone let them aestivate and then enter hibernation strightforward as they do in nature?

Yes, my herd both aestivates and hibernates. Spring is a period of frantic activity, with fighting, breeding, feeding ravenously etc. all in a few months. My herd has had lower fetility since moving to the extreme desert, whether it is because of climate or just diorienting effects of moving I don't know. Aestivating-hibernating is normal for horsefieldii in many parts of their wide range. What you and I have may mimic normal wild behavior. However, others report good breeding succes without hibernating...so different things work. Sometimes I wonder if my wild caughts might be from distant locales, and they are not completely compatible? I get some breeding and fetile eggs, but not as much as I would expect or had in Nor-Cal. Where do you live? Vic H. Imperial Valley, low desert in So.Ca.

I think I know you from another forum, talking about subspecies... I live in Northeastern Spain. We have a weather with hot summers and cold winters. This would be perfect exept for the spring and autumn, sometimes quite rainy. In summer we have thunderstorms due to heat, but the day is not as cold as in spring and it´s no problem if it rains. The breeding results are not good compared to other species (e.g Testudo marginata). I have a group of animals from the same importation, so they shoud be from the same geographical area. Then, what fails? Maybe aestivation. Maybe the spring weather maight play a paper too. If they are supposed to do so many things in such short time (feed for all the year, breed...), a bad spring might affect breeding cicles. Some years until the end of April we don´t have really good weather. In mid June they start aestivating. Maybe the time of ovulation is over if they don´t mate succesfully in March-April (and males need many attempts to achieve intromission. In fact I have never seen it, maybe it´s the problem...).In Germany the weather is worse and I heard that some breeders have them in hibernacula until the summer. I don´t know if they have better results.
If someone has good breeding results, please, tell us the secret!

How big are your adult females? It is common to hear Russians are smallish torts with adults being five to six inches. However, a few folks I have heard about that are successful breeding them have sexually active and productive females more in the nine inch range. Vic, can you back that up? There is also the fact of animals possibly being from different locales, and the fact that WC animals just take a while to get into their natural groove of things. I quit stressing over my pair. I would love it if the female lays a clutch, but realize it just may not happen.

They are about 6 inches. I had them 6-7 years ago, they were subadults. All you say can be true, maybe it´s just impatience and with tortoises things need their time.
Anyway I will try to change some things that can be wrong. I have seen in this forum about low hibernating temp. I will use the fridge for cooler hibernation. I will also let aestivate the ones that bury, in case it helps.
Any new ideas or suggestions are welcome, thanks for the help.

1) I had luck with animals that did not aestivate. They hibernated about 90 days in the winter, but the conditions were never right to induce aestivation. They were outdoors 24 hours a day from around April to October.

2) The best egg production occured when the male was over 5" in length and the females were 6.5 to 7" and weighing over 1000 grams.

3) Fertility increased with time. Either I was doing something better or the animals were becoming more mature, or ?, but they did crank out more eggs that had a higher hatching rate after a couple years. My main male and female were adoptees that showed some signs of poor care, so maybe they needed time to recover and become more fertile. My other female grew from 4" to 7" and was popping out a lot of good eggs. I wish I'd kept my records of that time.

4) I didn't see anything about calcium supplementation. Even though you are feeding them the right foods, it doesn't mean they are getting enough calcium. The calcium concentration in the food depends on the quality of the soil it is grown in. Add some cuttle bone to the pen or sprinkle some calcium powder on the food.

Good luck!

As usual, Bradtort makes some great points. Remember, some folks are successful not hibernating tortoises at all, i.e. Joe Heinen of the Russiatortoise forum. My torts. however do hibernate and aestivate. But different things will work for different keepers it seems. Most Russians I see are 4 or 5 years from breeding size, they are typically imported quite small.
Size matters! I don't think you have much chance of breeding success unless your females are at least 900 gms.
Most successful breeding seems to occur right after emergence from hibernation, in So. Cal that is early March or so. Many people have never seen a big female, they are impressive. Still, the fertility of my herd has decreased since I moved to the extreme desert, but maybe we will do better this year. Keep trying and have fun, and give them lots of Calcium as Brad says, ground oyster shell, cuttle bone, egg shells etc.