My eggs

[Hanako]

I wouldn't say it is their first go. they keep practising daily! So it must be at least 50th attempt by now...but it is a good news that they are big enough. The question is whether they are fertile. Is there any way how I could check the sperm under a microscope and see whether it is fertile? (Now only the tiny problem of collecting the sperm!)

[egyptiandan64]

Collecting might be a problem Easiest way to tell is to have only one of them with a female and wait on the eggs. I can't think they aren't fertile

Danny

[Hanako]

Originally Posted by egyptiandan64

Collecting might be a problem Easiest way to tell is to have only one of them with a female and wait on the eggs. I can't think they aren't fertile

Danny

I might as well wait for the eggs I already have in incubator to hatch.
It would be nice to be able to find out without having to wait those 2 months to see whether they are going to hatch. There must be some test available for the sperm became humans have tests like that too. But the collection is a bit tricky, so I may have to just wait...(sigh)

[Ozric Jonathan]

I just felt I had to jump in here Hanako! You might forgive me when I say that my oldest female has eggs but she hasn't laid them. She dug a lovely hole yesterday in a spot that I thought was ideal but after all her hard work she decided against laying and has gone back to sniffing about the enclosure.

Probably her eggs won't be fertile for a similar reason to yours'. My biggest male would seem large enough but I suspect his technique is poor. They did have some time together in the summer but the lady didn't appear to be cooperating. Or at least not when I was playing gooseberry.

I'm sure you will get there soon Hanako and I'll be watching every step of the way. Partly for my own selfish reasons!

[sandy]

tortoises are really fickle, I don't bother any more trying to make nests for my tortoises. I tried for many years, but they decide where they want to lay now.
Two of my females like to dig nests in the lawn, when its dry and like concrete. One did try to dig concrete, but eventually laid in the most unlikely place.
They also like to dig trial nests, and sometimes go back to where they dug in the first place, or somewhere completely different. Nearly all dig in nest that are not what is recommended by books and the net:0)

[Hanako]

Ozric, if she didn't lay them, she may lay them tomorrow. Mine did several days of trials and then she did it for real. I would wet the place where she had her attempt with a warm water and make sure that the level of soil is deep enough (if it isn't, add there some more soil). I think my girl's 'problem' with a few unsuccessful attempts to lay were that the soil at that spot was too dry. She preferred to lay at much wetter soil than I thought. When you want to build sand castle on the beach, the sand needs to be a bit wet. Not soaking but definitely not dry. That's the way my girls like their soil when they are laying eggs. (I didn't come up with this myself, I read it here somewhere!)

[Ozric Jonathan]

Thanks folks for your suggestions. The substrate depth indoors doesn't seem like enough for a nest so I made a smaller area with much greater depth of soil which is kept in place by a wooden frame.

This seemed to work in that she dug there but I think Hanako might be right about the water content of the soil. Due to it maybe not being damp enough the edges of the nest she made were not very strong. I did add a lot of warm water and then put a layer of dry material on the top of that but so far she hasn't tried again.

Sandy is right about them being fickle. I realise I've also made things more complicated for this tortoise by bringing her indoors. She had dug a hole outside already without laying any eggs in it. Now her environment is completely different.

[Hanako]

Mine also like the area to be quite warm. Not quite under a lamp, but not too far from it (or from a ceramic heater).

[Hanako]

Today I found another egg. Only one and just laying on the surface. I tried to dig under it and around it, just in case there are some more, but it seems it is only this one. I feel weird about not knowing who the mommy is. I have already accepted that with tortoises you can never be completely certain who the daddy is (unless you have only one male), but not knowing who the mommy is somehow did not even enter my mind before. My girls have always taken their time with laying the eggs, so I had the time to notice who is digging and who is pushing it out... It probably be infertile if it was found on the surface, but if it isn't, it is a bit sad not having any siblings or parents! Poor baby! Wondering if an orphan is the right term. Strictly speaking, his/her parents didn't die, they are just unknown.

[Ozric Jonathan]

I think I know what you mean Hanako, but we're being humans here. If the egg was to hatch then the baby is on his own in this world which is surely true of any other baby tortoise too.

By the way mine still hasn't laid.