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Old 13-07-2006, 01:48 PM   #1
clairekentuk
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Default Tort behaving gravid but not

My tort has been pacing, sniffing the ground and digging three "nests" for around 2 weeks now on warmer days.
She is sniffing around now, she stops frequently and puts her head to the ground as if to eat but in places there is no food eg soil concrete. She is not gravid as shown in xray done yesterday.
Has anyone had experience of a tort appearing gravid but not being gravid?
She has totally changed personality and has hardly eaten (may be explained by worm diagnosis yesterday).
I have not heard of tortoises having phantom pregnancy formally but is it possible?, and if so is there anything I can do to get her back to normal?
Could it be that she is testing the area to decide whether its fit for reproduction?
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Old 13-07-2006, 01:53 PM   #2
sandy
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Maybe its just her hormones have got out of routine.
I do remember one case where this happened but a long long time ago. It might pay to email
Andy H to see if it has happened before.
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Old 13-07-2006, 03:39 PM   #3
clairekentuk
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Ive copied the question to the ask the expert section of the forum for Andy to answer if he gets chance.
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Old 13-07-2006, 06:01 PM   #4
egyptiandan64
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It's happened to me much too often for my taste within the last 3 years. I've had egyptians and now a libyan greek go through the whole process of nesting. They'll dig a hole, sit at the hole like the were going through labor, then going through the process of covering the nest again. All the egyptians laid eggs later. One egyptian nested 4 times before she laid her first egg. The egg wasn't over calcified, so she didn't retain it from the first 3 times. The egg is fertile and about to hatch. The other female laid twice before digging a phantom nest then laid 3 more eggs after. The libyan is a captive born female and this is her first time nesting it was probably from the advances of a male that got her to do this. Ramming plays a big part in Testudo reproduction, so sometimes I'm thinking if a female isn't quite ready to lay but is being harrased by a male. It can get her hormones out of whack where she thinks she is carrying eggs. That makes her want to go through the whole process. I'm just glad all my females went through the whole process of nesting so they had closure to everything.
The only thing I can think to do for now Claire is to seperate the males and females. That will hopefully calm everything down.

Dan
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Old 13-07-2006, 10:25 PM   #5
clairekentuk
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Thanks Dan. Ill get to work on seperating the enclosure Dan.
She hasnt been too bad today and ate a little. I got the panacur down them no probs. They seemed to like it.
So hopefully she is on the up.
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