Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 18" p. pardalis female just spent a week mating with a loaner p. pardalis male, her first contact with a male in her 16-18 year life. Today, 12 days after her first mating with the male, she laid a clutch of eggs.

What do you think the odds are that these could be fertile? I have no idea how long the normal time lapse is from mating to egg-laying, and of course since females can retain sperm that makes it hard to know. She's bee laying big infertile clutches, without any male contact, like clockwork for years.

I'm incubating them but advice/opinions are welcome

Craig

My leopard tortoises take about 4 to 6 weeks between clutches so I would be surprised if the eggs are fertile but I would incubate them any way. Usually G. p. pardalis leopards lay eggs in a state of diapause and it is difficult to hatch the eggs unless the diapause has been broken. This usually requires a cooling period. I leave my South African leopard tortoise eggs in the ground to overwinter (we get over 100 days of night time below freezing temperatures here) and they hatch the following fall (egg hatched out of the ground a few weeks ago).

Good luck,

Richard Fife

Hay Richard, Do you think this is true of tortoises that lay only one clutch a year. Two guesses on what kind of tort. I'm talking about! LOL. I've been trying to figgure this out for 20 years! When does the magic bullit occure. Vic M.

Vic:

I don’t know how long it takes for Burmese Mountain tortoises from breeding to egg laying but I would suspect it is about the same as with the multi-clutch produces. It is important for tortoise keeps to understand that just because a tortoise has been bred doesn’t necessarily mean it will produce eggs. It is true that breeding can stimulate ovulation but there are also environmental factors that stimulate the follicles to mature in preparation for ovulation. If these environmental factor have not been experienced then no eggs! The tortoise must also be healthy. The most important environmental triggers are light cycle, temperatures cycles, and annual barometric pressure cycles. Different species require different environmental changes. You may get breeding all year but egg only in season.

Good luck

Probably low chance of fertility due to the time between mating and laying the eggs.