The male tortoise climbed onto the female and then lowered his back until it was touching the ground, leaving the male pointing upward at about a 70 degree angle to the ground. With front feet dangling or just touching the top of the female's carapace, the male moved his tail under the female's carapace. During mating the male stretched his neck out as far as it would go and opened his mouth in a wide gape, emitting a number of low moaning hisses. The carapacial hinge in female Kinixys tortoises might help them during egglaying. A normal clutch for Hinge-back females is two to four oval eggs, although larger K. belliana are capable of producing twice as many eggs.
Females also can produce multiple clutches in a breeding season.
Hatchling tortoises are approximately 1.5 to 2 inches long when they first hatch. Young Kinixys tortoises strongly resemble tortoises in the genus Homopus . The Hinge-backs inhabit a diverse array of habitats in central and southern Africa. Kinixys belliana lives primarily in grassland and savannah regions, although some individuals can be found in coastal forests. These regions often go through times of drought, and Bell's Hinge-back estivates underground to survive these periods.