Herman group Overwintered breeding
 

I am overwintering my group of 7 Herman's this year as it will be our 1st together. They started winding down and loosing body weight as the temps were dropping back in early Oct. I then took them inside subsequently gained weight again They are all over 12 years old. The male has been up to his tricks (I think he thinks its spring. I have kept temps at hottest part of the day at 30 then lowers down to 21 at night. One of the largest females has been chasing other females and mounting them. I understand this could be gravid behaviour but could be a territory dominance thing. I have soil in the setup sloped with bulb above.
Has anyone overwintered their tortoise and laid?

Yes I have kept them up because of them being gravid, big 2kg+hermans. No fun having them penned up in shed gravid & charging around!

They need a bigger temp drop at night:0)
15c would be a lot better for them.

Overwintering is not as simple as it sounds. I do agree with Sandy about reducing temperatures at night and also 30c seems a a little high as a background temperature every day. I would suggest 23c as a more suitable daytime temperature for most Mediterranean tortoises. This should encourage them to bask and provided visual light levels are sufficient it should increase activity. If your tortoises find they need to bask to achieve optimum temperature there is more chance of them choosing the basking site for nesting, giving you the opportunity to provide sufficient depth of soil in this area.. The best depth of soil for nesting in my opinion is a minimum of the tortoises SCL.

I've had a female lay indoors a couple of times. The soil has to be moist and warm. I used coir and pressed it down firmly after adding warm water. And with a lamp on it. The hole the female digs is deep, and if there isn't enough depth she will abandon the nest. I keep a close eye on it, keeping other torts out.

Ok I used a mix of soil and Coir. I woke up to seeing the female using her hind legs. I moved the others away. she stopped and moved on I gave her a bath weighed her and put her back. Left her to it
http://s1248.photobucket.com/user/ni...tml?sort=3&o=2

few hours later I weighed her again. She lost 69g I then did an egg hunt and uncovered 4 eggshttp://s1248.photobucket.com/user/ni...tml?sort=3&o=0

Female is OK and eating The eggs are cooking in the Incubator fingers crossed.

http://s1248.photobucket.com/user/ni...tml?sort=3&o=1

Guys Just an update 1 of my females yesterday was using her feet digging everywhere. I bathed her and weighed her. I split her from the group and left her alone.
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I got back later in the evening and weighed her. She was 70 grams lighter. I then went on an egg hunt and have found 4 eggs
[IMG]http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/...psv9kqqm9z.jpg[/IMG]

All sounds very exciting.

Earlier this year my female came out of hibernation, I bathed her and she proceeded to la 4 eggs. It was amazing to see the weight difference after laying 4 eggs (which did not develop in incubation).

Look forward to hearing more.

Just another update. One of my other females laid 3 eggs today. Late Christmas present[IMG]http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/...pskg1yxdsv.jpg[/IMG]

Ok Happy new year everyone:grin: I have had yet another surprise this time from the big female I was mentioning that was bulldozing everything and mounting other torts I decided to separate her today from the other and low and behold she was digging a nest within hour or so of being separated. This time I watched the female dig part of the nest. I watched her lay 7 eggs and it was an amazing thing to see. She was so delicate with the positioning of the eggs. Attached pics of her digging and laying and other eggs in the incubator. Hopefully some of these come out to be fertile and develope

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