what age for torts to breed

[vivp]

what age can they start to breed from.[/u]

[sandy]

Its not age that makes a tortoise lay eggs, but its size.
If grown smoothly then possibley 10-15 years old, before egg laying.

[piglet]

Again Sandy is what i would go with.
My second generation mediterranean sspur thighs started laying at 13yrs old but saying this one has laid last year at 11 yrs and shes tiny compared to her bigger sisters
Darren

[vivp]

really ive got a long wait then for eggs

[egyptiandan64]

It's actually a combination of the 2, age and size. I haven't seen any specific studies on tortoises about this, but there was a great study done on Ornate box turtles, Terrapene ornata ornata. In the study they found the earliest a female in the study population became fertile was 6 years. She was over the minimum size of 4 inches. Between 6 and 11 years is when the females became fertile and all females were fertile by 11 years. So between 6 and 11 years they'd all reached the minimum size of 4 inches.
I'm sure it would be the same for tortoises, just at larger sizes.

Dan

[piglet]

Dan
I'm sure your right there Dan but if I was to encourage breeding (egg laying) from a 6 -8yr old Ibera this animal would have to be grown considerably and the only way this would be achieved is by over feeding and no hibernation two things i totally disagree with i think allowing an animal to grow slowly and reach sexual maturity in its own time is far better and much healthy for the animal than encouraging breeding activity at such young ages .
I do no some species of chelonia do reach sexual maturity at young ages than others but usually this is because they have been artificially grown in captivity and would certainly not have grown to this size in there wild state , you can argue that this is perfectly adequate and does no harm to the animal but show me a Hermann's or med spur thigh at 6-8 years old that's sexually reproductive and also possesses a carapace of equal to a wild caught specimen and size to match .
Darren

[egyptiandan64]

I know exactly what your saying Darren and I should have added greater ages as well as sizes. I wouldn't expect a wild tortoise to get to be laying size in 6 years, just used it as an example of the combination of age and size. I should have elaborated a little bit more .
The ornate box turtle study was on a wild population.

Dan

[piglet]

Dan
No problem just added a thread as it could easily have been mis-interpretated by new comers to tortoiae breeding etc i new what you meant mate
Darren