hi ,
i have 2 hermann torts but one is male and one is female !! the female is 4 and the male is 7 ! can anyone tell me how old she will be when she is able to lay eggs !??!! (the male keeps trying to hump the female !!)

it's more to do with size than age to be honest hun.

if it's a guaranteed female and a male can i suggest either seperating them or getting another female or two(these will need quarantining for 6 months so it may be best to seperate either way temporarily).it will spread the males harrassment out over the others.

female torts kept 1:1 can become very stressed and can lead eventually to illness.

Also if she's too small to breed (which at 4 she should be much to small to breed) theres a risk of her becoming eggbound,if the male does somehow manage to mate her successfully.

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"The worst sin towards are our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity" George Bernard Shaw

If she is not old enough to produce eggs then she will not become eggbound. Far greater risk is damage to the cloacal area. A male should never be kept with a smaller female as horrific damage can result, especially in hermanns, due to the horny tip on the tail and the female not being big enough to accomodate the male. These torts need to be seperated until the female is adult and then, as mentioned more females added to the group. Large outdoor accomodation is needed before attempting to breed from any torts, to allow the females to hide. Keeping mixed sexes in table tops, vivs etc is a recipe for disaster.

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Take care
Sue

wizzasmum@aol.com

i've heard of people who've had eggbound females who are too small to deliver the eggs successfully.this is what i was referring to..sorry if i caused some confusion

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"The worst sin towards are our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity" George Bernard Shaw

No confusion at all Katie, didn't mean to offend. Strictly speaking if torts are large enough to produce eggs then they should be able to pass them, it happens in the wild. The problem you are speaking of usually happens in captive torts that have been grown too quickly and are therefore deformed compared with wild ones, in which case you are quite right and there could well be problems with passing eggs, even in adulthood. This is one of the reasons for not growing torts too fast as thickened shells means restricted egg passage

__________________
Take care
Sue

wizzasmum@aol.com

thanx i will seperate the two and in the summer i will get a female or two more thankyou

jack