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Old 29-08-2006, 08:31 AM   #11
terrypin
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hi this is my opinion based on my own experiences do with it what you will ,if this female has never laid eggs or been mated for a lot of years and is getting old it would be cruel and dangerous to subject her to the attentions of a male, and all the potential problems and dangers assocciated with egg laying .i have found that any mateing activity will produce although not neccesarily fertile eggs even mateing between spurthighed and hermans tortoises have produced eggs ,but i have never known any to be fertile and i have tried to incubate them for people in the past as well as adviseing them to seperate the tortoise species.
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Old 29-08-2006, 08:50 AM   #12
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I'm sorry, but I think that if this female tort is being kept badly, as you say (iceberg lettuce, no heat or UV when indoors, no calcium supplements, etc.) then I certainly wouldn't encourage the keeper to mate that tortoise to try and produce eggs. It would be stressful for the tortoise and not very nice to bring little torts into a world where they would be kept as badly as their Mum. I'd put my efforts into trying to get the keeper to provide better indoor conditions.
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Old 29-08-2006, 12:24 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by terrypin
hi this is my opinion based on my own experiences do with it what you will ,if this female has never laid eggs or been mated for a lot of years and is getting old it would be cruel and dangerous to subject her to the attentions of a male, and all the potential problems and dangers assocciated with egg laying .i have found that any mateing activity will produce although not neccesarily fertile eggs even mateing between spurthighed and hermans tortoises have produced eggs ,but i have never known any to be fertile and i have tried to incubate them for people in the past as well as adviseing them to seperate the tortoise species.
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Hi, the female isnt old so it wouldnt be cruel or dangerous
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Old 29-08-2006, 12:28 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nina
I'm sorry, but I think that if this female tort is being kept badly, as you say (iceberg lettuce, no heat or UV when indoors, no calcium supplements, etc.) then I certainly wouldn't encourage the keeper to mate that tortoise to try and produce eggs. It would be stressful for the tortoise and not very nice to bring little torts into a world where they would be kept as badly as their Mum. I'd put my efforts into trying to get the keeper to provide better indoor conditions.
The tortoise is being kept very badly so if you think that mating it like this would be a bad idea then i will not do it, if you had read my post you would realise i have said "i will be getting the eggs" so they wouldnt be kept as badly as their mum.
I have tried as much as i can to change the torts conditions, i bathed it at the weekend and fed it weeds and offered to build it an enclosure. but to no successs
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Old 29-08-2006, 01:56 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carl19
Quote:
Originally Posted by nina
I'm sorry, but I think that if this female tort is being kept badly, as you say (iceberg lettuce, no heat or UV when indoors, no calcium supplements, etc.) then I certainly wouldn't encourage the keeper to mate that tortoise to try and produce eggs. It would be stressful for the tortoise and not very nice to bring little torts into a world where they would be kept as badly as their Mum. I'd put my efforts into trying to get the keeper to provide better indoor conditions.
The tortoise is being kept very badly so if you think that mating it like this would be a bad idea then i will not do it, if you had read my post you would realise i have said "i will be getting the eggs" so they wouldnt be kept as badly as their mum.
I have tried as much as i can to change the torts conditions, i bathed it at the weekend and fed it weeds and offered to build it an enclosure. but to no successs
Sorry, Carl, I did miss that in your original post - and I can see why you got excited at the prospect of being able to incubate and hatch the eggs. It does sound like you're doing all you can for this tort - I can't understand why the owner is so stubborn about it. One other thing about mating the tortoise is that if you just introduce a male without a proper quarantine period, you don't know what diseases you could be passing back and forth from one to the other. Also, if the tort hasn't had an adequate calcium intake she might not be able to produce good eggshells (or if she did, it could deplete her body of calcium, which would be very bad for her). Sorry to sound negative about this, but it does seem as if there are several factors against it. But I'm not an expert, and so might be very wrong.
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Old 29-08-2006, 02:33 PM   #16
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nina, i respect all your comments, and this breeding idea wasnt likely to go ahead anyway as i only see this tort once in a blue moon and i dont know any other local hermann keepers, after reading your posts i will advise her not to breed her tort.

The girl is in such an unusual position, she has just moved in to her own home and she thinks her mum will give her the family tort, she is getting someone to move in with her now surprisingly this person also has a tortoise, i havent seen this tort but she reckons it is the same breed which i cant believe as she didnt know the breed of her tort until i posted pics on this forum. i only see this lass every few months so i cant help the tort like i did at the weekend, and i have no influence on what she does when her friend moves in with her tort.

The reason she is stubborn is because they have had the tort 7 years or so and the rspca told them to feed it iceberg and the tort hasnt shown any ill health, and to be honest the tort looked healthy to me too. Now i know that in the long run this tort will suffer and die early but she doesnt understand.

What i cant understand is how the tort is so healthy, after 7 years of no indoor lighting or heat source and being fed iceberg lettuce, what i mean by healthy is clear eyes and mouth, the tort is heavy but walks tall and its shell is smooth and solid.
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Old 29-08-2006, 02:36 PM   #17
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Well there is the saying it takes 20 yrs to kill a torotise so only time will tell how much longer this tort will survive in this way.
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Old 29-08-2006, 02:37 PM   #18
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yeah definately, question: is it stealing when it is a rescue mission??? oj
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Old 29-08-2006, 02:42 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by carl19
yeah definately, question: is it stealing when it is a rescue mission??? oj
I think in your original post you said it was out in the garden with access to weeds when it is warm, so I guess it's making the most of that time! Good on ya, Carl, for trying to improve this tortoise's life. And keep us posted on how it gets on. I just hope that if the friend with the other tortoise moves in that they don't get put the two together, in case any disease is passed from one to the other.

Take care,
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Old 29-08-2006, 02:47 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nina
Quote:
Originally Posted by carl19
yeah definately, question: is it stealing when it is a rescue mission??? oj
I think in your original post you said it was out in the garden with access to weeds when it is warm, so I guess it's making the most of that time! Good on ya, Carl, for trying to improve this tortoise's life. And keep us posted on how it gets on. I just hope that if the friend with the other tortoise moves in that they don't get put the two together, in case any disease is passed from one to the other.

Take care,
I will tell you today that if the other girl moves in with her tort then no matter what size difference there is these two torts will probably be mixed, in fact even if they are different species these will be mixed unless the other girl is very knowledgeable. as the hermann at the moment has the full freedom of the house, and im sure if the other girl doesnt know much then hers will have the full run also. I try my best to advise her but ppl dont realise how long a tort is supposed to live and that killing a tort over 20 years is still killing a young tort. I think it is probably bcos most common pets (dogs,cats,gerbils,rabbits etc....) dont live long
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