@ossobuco,
maybe next time you could consider small?
@ossobuco,
I think I have an idea, if she is carrying eggs I think I'll pick up a small sandbox and place her in it and see what happens.
I've been reading up on it a bit today and I'm pretty sure the Vet is going to find out she's carrying eggs.
Sulcata Tortoise Breeding
Quote:Captive African spurred tortoises (Centrochelys [Geochelone] sulcata) may mate throughout the year, but it begins in earnest in autumn when morning temperatures are cooler. Males court females by ramming them, steering them into obstacles or attempting to get in front of them. The goal is to stop a female long enough for a male to mount her. Mating is accompanied by hoarse grunts that can be quite loud.
If this tortoise can lay eggs at that size so can Henry, not much different in the size of the two!
@jcboy,
You go at family life with an absolute vengeance.
I think your parents would have been wonderfully proud of you - a husband, a son, hoping for a daughter, dogs, and a pregnant tortoise.
As I'm sure I went on sometime before, my business partner (landscape) back in California, was from Texas and grew up doing rodeo and being horse mad, and so on, with a soft heart.
She was a contractor for us, back in the day (did a design for the LA Zoo and she was right, long story). Anyway, we ended up working together over a batch of years. One of my first memories of her (she's still alive, no worries) was her stopping to pick up a doberman thrown off a truck. That was Rojo. Rojo had some good years after.
Point is, that she knew her turtles. I haven't asked her about them lately, so I don't know the latest. Last I knew, Spot was in his twenties, now in his thirties.
@ehBeth,
Well Henry is a female and she’s carrying eggs. She has at least a dozen ping ball size eggs inside her. She’s has started eating a little each day and keeps walking around the side yard. The Vet said she can hold them for a while until she finds the right spot to start digging, he also said she might dig several holes until she finds the right one.
If any of them hatch we won’t be keeping them, but we’re also not sure what to do with them either.
@jcboy,
Congrats and glad it's not some sort of illness.
@Ragman,
Me too, she seemed fine and no wheezing. I've read they can get a bad bacterial infection but she's healthy.
If any or all hatch we have no clue what to do with the babies
@jcboy,
Not to sound too callous but how does turtle egg omelets sound?
Can you believe it? Here's a forum for Torts and they've asked the same thing as you:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/what-do-you-do-with-your-eggs.38657/
@Ragman,
Ragman wrote:
Not to sound too callous but how does turtle egg omelets sound?
Marco has been asking that same question
@ossobuco,
Here she is walking around the house. She looks bitchy, I suppose anyone would carrying a dozen babies inside them.
@jcboy,
Remember what the French say about all this?
One egg is an ouef.
@Ragman,
Deviled eggs perhaps?
She's at the age now where she will gain 10 to 20 lbs a year. I may have to have a hitch put on the car and buy a cheap trailer to haul her around town!
I wonder what the neighbors would think?
@Ragman,
interesting reading at that forum
good find
@jcboy,
love the news..
but in the meantime, what about the eating?
My experience with turtles was feeding them worms and some veggie stuff, no idea on all this now.
I guess turtle mama is being picky.
@jcboy,
Where are you planning to take her? the beach?
@jcboy,
my steampunk friends would love her
