Urgent Care :: Turtle is acting oddly, cannot find info

[carrotcake]

Hey there,

I looked absolutely everywhere on the net to find out what my turtle is doing but I just can't find any answers. I am wondering if anyone here can help me.

I woke up one morning and found an egg floating in my tank, half eaten. As sad as I was, I thought that I was too late in saving the egg and told myself to wait until next year. A week or so later, the same thing happened again. This time, I did some research and found out that they don't lay all the eggs all at once. So I decided to make my turtle a little area separate from the main tank with tons of soil for her to lay her eggs in.

It is a ~25gallon tank with about 3gallons of peat moss in there (3 inch high all around). I put the turtle in there for the entire day, only taking it out 4 times a day to feed and rehydrate her. I even supplied the tank with a basking light. At night however, the turtle has a tendancy to dig a hole and go sleep in it, to the point that she isn't even visible because she completely burrowed in to the soil. During the day, she struggles endlessly to get out.

I don't want my turtle to be egg bound, but at the same time, I want to give her eggs a chance.
What do I do?

any help would be appreciated!

-carrotcake

[SpotsMama]

Is there a male turtle present? If there's no male (and sometimes even if there is a male) the eggs won't be fertile.

That said, letting fertile eggs hatch is discouraged. As a whole, there is a considerable overpopulation of RES. Too many little hatchlings are sold into homes where they can't be properly taken care of and wild or released RES overrun lakes and ponds and force out native turtles. Since there are so many very good healthy RES available for adoption from responsible rescue organizations, it's not necessary to breed more of them.

It is awfully good of you to be taking such pains to be sure your turtle doesn't get egg bound. I don't know anything about the subject (my turt is a male) so will let some of the others on here with more experience answer your specific questions.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Depending on where you live (hopefully your weather is starting to get nice & toasty in your area), I know one person on the board who takes his turtle out to a field & walks around with her & lets her lay her eggs outdoors. Turtles are extremely picky about where they lay their eggs. They don't just lay eggs just because you put soil in a box unfortunately (I wish it was that easy.....I have gone thru the SAME experiences as you with my big adult RES!). Is there any farm area where you can take her to let her roam a bit (supervised) so she can find her own spot? Preferably an open field with a body of water nearby. They tend to like areas like this because it means the babies can find their way to the water. It may take a coupla hours before she finds a spot that is suitable, but be patient. They can be out of the water for up to 8 hours at a time, so you don't have to worry about her drying out.

Of course, after the eggs are laid, you should just destroy them. As Spotsmama mentioned, there is an overpopulation of RES's in the world.

[carrotcake]

what do you think about tha fact that she's burrying herself?

[SpotsMama]

That's normal turtle behavior for any turtle, pregnant or not. Spot would sometimes try to burrow down into the ground last summer when I'd let him out to roam. I've heard of other turtles doing it as well.

[carrotcake]

To be more specific, for about a month in january, she was with a male, who was then removed because he didn't belong to me, he did his little tribal dance and everything, so I'm pretty sure they had a sexy time (also because I've had this turtle for a long time and it's the first time I see eggs).

She shares a tank with a female roomate at about 85gallons and the water temperature is 25 (I don't know that in farenheit). There is a basking area large enough for both turtles.

The turtle laying the eggs is about 7in. in length. and I would say about 8-9 years old.

That being said, I don't want to be a menace to the environment, but I want to hatch just one turtle, to see the entire life cycle on the species. I have no intentions of breeding every year.

-Carrotcake

[industrial_girl_2000]

Check this out:

www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/Nestsites.htm

[steve]

what do you think about tha fact that she's burrying herself?

What was the temperature? It could be that it was too cold (or in other cases too hot).

[carrotcake]

it was higher than room temperature, i would say about 23-24. Basically the soil was being heated by a regular run-of-the-mill 60W light bulb, placed about a foot away from her.

-carrotcake

[marisa]

Sounds like your turtle felt vulnerable in the open and was burying herself to hide. My most timid one will do this even when he's put in a container with a towel to wait while I clean the tank. He burrows under the towel.