Tips on Breeding a Tortoise

Breeding your tortoise is not something to be entered into lightly. It is the
natural way for your tortoise to live, with a mate. However, breeding entails a
lot of planning and work on your behalf to ensure you provide the best
environment for the pregnant tortoise and also for the hatchlings.
It may incur quite a considerable financial cost for you as you will need more
than one adult breeding pair. In some species the males must battle with
other males in order to be ready to mate. This can result in injury to one or
both tortoises and the necessary veterinary bills. Females may become eggbound
and may require surgery.

Although some people have tried to use breeding tortoises as a means to earn
an income it requires a lot of initial investment of time, money and work.
You will need an incubator in which to keep the hatchlings and in some
countries you are not allowed to sell a tortoise which is less than 4 inches in
length, this could take up to three years with some species! There may be a
substantial number of hatchlings to care for. The Sulcata tortoise for example
can lay 20 eggs five or six times a year. You will have to have enough room to
care for all of these offspring until they are large enough to be sold. It is not a
venture to be entered into lightly.

It is important not to mix two different species as they will not be worth
anything and may not actually be able to produce viable offspring.

In the run up to a breeding season for your tortoise you will have to make
sure not only that the species are the same but discover if you’re particular
species requires more than one male or is it one-to-one? Some tortoise species
need a group to be successful at breeding. This may mean fights and injury to
one or more of the pets.

Make sure you can identify which are females and which are males. The males
often have a slightly concave plastron (underbelly) to accommodate mounting
the female. The male may also have a thicker tail. His penis comes out of the
cloaca (the internal chamber where the urinary, digestive and genital canals
empty their contents)

The breeding pair may not be ready for breeding even given the season. The
female may not be ovulating. Success is more likely if you have several females
and at least two adult males.

To prepare the tortoises for mating ensure they are both healthy and clear of
parasites. Diet is very important to ensure optimum health. Include a
vitamin/mineral supplement too.

Depending on the species your tortoise may need to hibernate before it can
mate. Even if they do not hibernate, separate the males from the females for
the winter. Introduce the males to the females in the spring and let nature
take its course.

After mating, continue to provide a varied herbivorous diet for the female and
also provide cuttlebones so the tortoise can nibble and get as much calcium as
possible. Don’t disturb your pregnant tortoise too much and maintain the
clean environment of the enclosure.

When she is ready, your tortoise will start to explore her cage looking for a
spot to lay her eggs. You should already have a spot prepared for her. If it is an
indoor species fill a small box with clean sand or fine soil and put enough in
so that the soil is deeper than the females back leg stretched out. Make sure
the incandescent light is placed above the box and maintain the heat between
80-90 degrees.

If it is in an outside enclosure, dig up a spot in the sun but that is still
protected. Place softer material inside the hole, she may not chose your preprepared
spot but it is a good idea to give her a helping hand.

The female will dig a hole using her back eggs and then lay the eggs one by
one, carefully placing inside the hole. She will cover all the eggs with dirt and
twigs and then leave them to hatch.

If your tortoise goes through the motions of looking and digging a hole but
does not lay her eggs she may be egg bound and require some veterinarian
assistance as soon as possible. If she is left with the un-laid eggs inside her she
will die.

You may want to dig up the eggs immediately to incubate them. There may be
anything up to 25 eggs laid in one clutch depending on the species. Do not
rotate the tortoise eggs as you would a bird’s egg. Mark the top of the egg and
leave it to hatch. Disturbing it can damage the embryo.

A commercial incubator will work very well for this job. Although you could
make your own. Humidity is vital for successful hatching. You will need a
humidity gauge that is specially designed for reptiles.

The eggs will need to be incubated between two specific temperatures. Any
fluctuation in this will result in no hatchlings. Usually between 70 and 80
degrees will hatch all male hatchlings. By 86 degrees there will be mixed sexes
and the eggs incubated between 86 and 90 degrees with all be female. Any
incubated over 90 degrees may result in dead or deformed hatchlings.