Did my tortoise lay eggs???
 

This morning I found two smooth white pebble like things in my torts enclosure. I initially thought my boys must've been messing with them, but have now come to what seems like the only possible conclusion - eggs!

So I have a few questions...

Can tortoises lay eggs with no male present?

Is one of my tortoises male?

What do I do with the eggs? (I'm assuming they are not fertile)

I have two UK captive bred Hermans, they were hatched August 2008 so they are 8 years old. They were incubated to be female so always assumed they were both female. Now looking at them I think one may actually be male.

I'm not sure how to upload photos but one of them has a considerably longer tail than the other, that's the only difference really.

Congratulations how exciting!

If you want to incubate you still have time. Put the eggs somewhere around 20 degrees for now. You can buy ready made incubators (its important to get a "still air,non turning type) or you can make your own (lots of how to's on line)

You need to aim for a temperature of 30/32 and humidity 70/80%. Open lid daily & you mustn't turn the egg's. Good luck :)

She laid another egg this morning. She is not making any attempt to bury them, but this one was laid under log bridge. I read that you need four females to one male, so do I now need to separate my two tortoises? They seem happy together, I've not noticed any aggression or biting towards each other.

We really need to see a picture of the underside tail end so we can say if you have a pair as yes females will lay egg with no male present.

If there is no biting or excessive ramming, then they provided they are the same species be kept together.
As females can get really stressed with too much mating from a male. Generally if they have enough space they are fine.

Ok, I ended up separating them as the smaller one was chasing and biting the larger one. Then the larger one laid another egg, so l presume she is a she.

The smaller one, even though it's smaller I've always thought was also female as it has a much smaller tail than the other.

The first two photos are the larger one that laid an egg when it was on its own. The last photo is the smaller one.


http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q...pswwnbg1b1.jpg

http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q...psebyxdw0z.jpg

http://i350.photobucket.com/albums/q...psqksauzga.jpg