Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my torts laid eggs in June. It became apparent as time went by that they were not fertile. She had laid one of them in the open and the other had been buried. Someone on a forum somewhere else seemed to suggest the eggs laid in the open tend not to be fertile? Is this true? How common is it for russians to lay infertile eggs?

I've had one year when none of the eggs my russians laid were fertile. And then other years when half to two-thirds of them would hatch. It seems fertility is best in the first batch laid of the year by each female.

I do recall my females laying a couple eggs out in the open. I don't think they hatched.

I don't know what is influencing the fertility rate. I have one adult male and two females. Next year there will be two adult males. That may improve things.

My herd produced a lot of infertiles this year...and I can only speculate why. It may be that the males should be brought out of hibernation ahead of the females, a successful breeder I know says this greatly increased his herds fertility. Curiously, others don't hibernate at all yet have high fertility. Some of my animals are different phenotype, I wonder if this might mean incompatable breeders, perhaps different subspecies or from widley varied area/altitude? I have heard eggs above ground are usually infertile. My herd buries them, but I still have quite a few failing to hatch...and I lay awake at night wondering why? There's always next season! Multiple males improves fertility in many reptiles, and I have 3 cantankerous males. Good luck, Vic

i've only had one female lay eggs on the surface once. all three eggs hatched, but i know they weren't out long (

not really sure what happened to my last message...

i've had plenty of females bury infertile eggs, icluding years of entire clutches being infertile. and with only a single female laying three eggs on the surface (all hatched), i can't say that i've seen this trend.

there doesn't seem to be a mechanism that would help explain how a female would "know" that her eggs were infertile. my guess is that someone mentioned the possibility anecdotally and it have become common "knowledge."

as vic said, increase your number of males and watch what happens, you may get lucky.

matt