Newbie in need of advice

[Posy]

Hi,

I have a 7 year old female and a6year old male Leopard tortoise, for the past2 weeks the female has been pacing up and down the enclosure. Last week she dug what I considered to be practice holes, digging for a couple of hours then giving up and going to sleep. Last night she went back to the spot that she has been favouring when digging and dug a large hole, she dug for over 6 hours then just got out went and had a drink of water and paced up and down again for an hour, in that tome she managed to walk over the ole she had dug causing the soil to fall back in and fill it up she then went to sleep for a couple of hours, woke up went back to where she had been digging and laid an egg on the top but made no attempt to dig again or bury it. She then went back to sleep for another 3 hours, had a very small amount of food a large amount of water and laid another egg in the complete opposite end of the enclosure to where she had laid the other egg. Again she made no attempt to dig or bury it. She has been asleep again now for about 3 hours. Is this normal?

[egyptiandan64]

It can be very normal for a first time layer to do that. Was your substrate damp and packed down so it would hold the nest shape while she was digging? I'd get her x-rayed to find out how many eggs she has left and possibly have her induced to lay the eggs she has left.

Danny

[Posy]

Thanks Danny, the substrate was damp and seemed to be holding shape on one side, but she was digging very close to the wall on the right side and kept banging her leg each time she dug on that side, so it didn't really clear properly on the right side
I will get her xrayed tho just to be safe

Thanks for your help