Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[peaches]

Awww babies, so cute Do you have any pics of an adult next to a baby? Just for size comparison and an interesting pic.
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[terrific tortoise]

Rickeezee, Blimey...just a couple of questions then! ...

There is some truth in size of tort, to age of tort, for breeding...But a tortoise could be one of the worse candidates possible to "force on" for breeding, or any purpose. Slow growth is the key, this is extremely difficult to achieve in captivity (hence pyramiding is common) my young torts are on a constant diet (weeds only...there free ya know! ), I only feed them every 2nd day, and only a small amount too.

A tort has the potential to live well beyond 100 years, therefore (in my opinion, and many other keepers) to place a female under the age of 10 years into a breeding situation, is not in the best interests for that tort, 12 to 15 years old would be more ideal. Of course males (both young and old) are rampant swines, and given any chance, will try to mate...repeatedly! So a young male could be put with older females, but he too could suffer in the long run, because his instincts would be to strut about, constantly trying to mate them.
It is difficult to find a happy medium between males and females, thats why other enclosures (for seperation) have to be in place. You do hear/see stories of really young torts breeding/egg laying, but again, is it in the torts interests, especially the poor females.

Although young torts need an appropriate indoor enclosure, there is no substitute for mother nature, therefore they need to be outdoors as much as possible, my adults (after hibernation) live outside 24/7, until early november when they again hibernate. As a side note, I also hibernate the young torts, yes even the 5 month olds.

Your right, tort husbandry (over the years) has and is improving, I only have 10 years experience and am learning all the time.
£3.00 each hey, back in the day..."when I were a lad" mind you back then, you could buy quite a lot for £3.00!

Do you, or are you thinking of keeping torts Rick?...T.T.
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[terrific tortoise]

Cleef, thanks very much...I do choose to clean the eggs before incubation (some keepers do, some dont) hence their appearence

peaches, I do not have photos of babies together with parents, but I can show you a comparison of sorts ...

1st pic of (mother) Spur thigh Ibera, she weighs 3 kilos/6.6lbs, 2nd pic is of (father) Spur thigh Ibera, he is about half her weight, 3rd pic is of one of the hatchlings just born, you should get some idea of their sizes ...T.T.






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[peaches]

1 2 3 .......awwwwwwwwwwww so teeny.

Thankyou for that T.T
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[Rickeezee]

Thanks for answering my questions TT. It all makes sense to me and when thinking about it is logical.
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www.rickslivefood.co.uk

[trueviper_UK]

Have to agree with everyone else. Stunning pics and torts
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You can't trust the snake......but you can always trust the snake to be a snake.