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Help! I wrote before. Lilly is gravid, for sure. I don't have a yard, but my neighbor has a dirt area in back of their house. I brought in a box of dirt here. She's totally ignoring it. She was behind my desk (lots of room, it's in the mdidle of the room, don't ask) and she was "digging" with rear and front legs. I even heard a little...wet... noise. but no egg.

I moved the dirt over to make her more comfortable. Of course it instead freaked her out. My question now, and asap responses appreciated, is should if I move her outside, will she lay eggs right away? There is no fence or anything, so I will have to stand over her and stare. OR. should I put her in dirt box with laundry basket over or something?

OR, should I leave her alone, and let her lay her eggs on the floor? I'm okay with that. Just worrying about HEr comfort.

Thanks all!

Well, update: I moved her to my neighbor's tiny garden area, and she's digging again. There is a fence around her, and they are also watching her. Her husband passed away Monday, and the services are today. I felt bad, intrusive. But they are all giggling, and getting a real kick out of her so I feel okay about it.

Having such a lovely instance of living nature to observe at this difficult time must be a comfort to your neighbors. Let us know how it goes! Do you have any idea how many eggs she's going to have?

THANK YOU so much for responding! I'm getting panicky now.

Well, I don't know how many. I didn't feel anything in front of her back legs, in fact. JUST now, I felt again and thought I felt something very tiny. Should I be able to feel how many? I just brought her back in. She dug for about 1-2 hours. Then she covered the hole, and started looking to get away from the garden. No eggs that I could find! I put her back in the water, so I can watch if she tries to get out, or if she seems tired. I don't see how I could have missed the eggs.... But we'll see based on her behavior... What do I do?

I think the neighbors did like watching her. They've gone to teh wake now. I REALLY don't want to bring her back tomorrow, then it is getting intrusive. Do you know what's going? How long will she usually dig before laying? And do you have any ideas what could have made her stop?

also, once she lays the eggs... any special treatment she should get? More food than usual? Or less time in water or what? Thank you SO much for all your help!!

Here's a thread which has links to a bunch of other threads that document the history of a turtle laying eggs for the first time. Not to scare you, but I think it was almost a week between the time the turtle first started acting gravid and the time she actually laid. Then, this turtle had repeated episodes of egg laying for months before she finally got through, but that was highly unusual. Usually a turtle that hasn't been with a male will not lay that many eggs and will lay fewer of them. But you never know for sure until it happens.

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... 649#168649

Is there a little park you can take her to? Maybe you can take a book and some snacks to keep you entertained while you watch over her. Most turtles do seem to prefer laying outside to laying in an indoor nesting box.

Once she's laid, she'll need some rest and more food than usual and especially more calcium.

If she covered the hole, I think she might have laid them. They could be extremely small depending on her size and age. My girl laid a few peanut M&M sized eggs before. Before she covered the hole, did she pause a bit? Did she feel noticeable lighter afterwards?

It's good that she found a spot she liked. Just let her pick one before anyone gets too close.

I did what Spotsmama suggested... I gave her some time to herself (even took out the other turtle) and gave her some cuttlebone and pellets.

I posted elsewhere (sorry) with an update that she did lay a clutch the second day. Once I realized how deep it was, I went back to the first place to dig deeper and see if there were any. None. We'll see! The ones she laid were surprisingly large! Very oval, but otherwise, about cherry tomato sized.