Urgent Care :: woke up to turtle laying eggs

[wanderlust queen]

Three days ago (wednesday the 6) I woke up and went outside to feed the turtles (they live in a pond enclosure) and one was laying eggs underneath one of the basking lamps in the dirt. She had dug a nice long hole, and I could take a peek at 2 eggs down there, but there could be more - not too many, though. She seemed to be doing fine and the other turtles weren't bothering her. She's about 8 years old, healthy, and along with the other turtles have only lived in their outdoor area for about 6 months. Funny thing is, I've seen her mount one of the other turtles, so I assumed her a male before wednesday, and now I don't quite know WHO the male is in the group.

I immediately read up on the basics of RES breeding to have an idea on what's going to happen, as I've never been in this situation before. I guess in about 70 days I'll keep a real close watch on the nest, and my plan is to grab up the hatchlings as they come out and put them in my old long tank I have with some shallow water. I hear they have to learn how to float or they can die and drown? Plus, wouldn't the adults mess with them?

The pond gets sun in the morning, and aside from that they have 2 basking lamps on the ground area. She happened to lay her eggs in the more popular of the two. Do you think the turtles basking over the eggs will be a problem? They are certainly not visible as she did an excellent job covering them. You literally could not tell there was a nest in the ground unless you had seen where she had dropped them.

whew. okay. if anyone else has any pointers, etc... i'd gladly take them. OH. and she's doing wonderfully now, completely active and eating voraciously (MAN! she ate like... all the fish!), and just a little snippy towards the other turtles. guess how any new mom would be.

[steve]

How many turtles are in the group and how big is this pond? It would be a really good idea to know what you have in there and to be certain if you have a male. If this is her first clutch, then it might NOT be her best and you should reconsider trying to hatch the eggs. In general it's not a good idea to have RES reproduce since they are overpopulated and have significant requirements. Anyway, I don't know if the current nest is optimal for eggs, but the hatchlings should be cared for indoors and in their own tank.

[wanderlust queen]

three in 150 gallons. I'm not trying to actively breed them, as I'm not too excited on the idea of taking care of babies. I want to give the male away but there are none of the obvious signs between sexes. in fact, the one that has the most male characteristics is the one who laid eggs.

[happycamper]

I am curious to see the pond area and turtles

Would pictures be possible?

[steve]

Here are some ways to tell: http://www.redearslider.com/determining_sex.html

You can post some of your pics and we'll try to sex them for you. Keep in mind females can lay eggs without the presence of a male but the eggs will be not be fertile or viable.

[wanderlust queen]

thanks, steve. i'll take pictures and post. none of the turtles have claws even remotely that long like you would expect in males, and the tales are hard to tell. to be honest, from what i can guess from the cloaca positioning they all seem to be female... but they were pretty pissed to be taken from their fish-hunting and were holding their tails pretty tight to their bodies. they are all full grown. there are two about 7 inches shell size, one that is about 8 1/2 inches.

i had also previously read that females can lay eggs without a male present, and am actually hoping this is the case. up until recently she has never lived in an environment that would allow her to roam, explore, and dig holes to lay eggs, so maybe this is the case just because she isn't living in a tank any longer. however it seems fishy since the egg-laying one was seen doing a "dance" with the largest turtle, but then she was the one doing the mounting. strange? or, whatever? would females do this amongst themselves as well? i've also read on forums that the "mating" dance could also simply be a dominance thing regardless of sex. but is mounting among them common? perhaps the two were just having a bit of a tiff together?

i'm not sure, i guess i'll see in about 80 days! i'm just happy that i have a house with a yard guarded by dogs (no cats/raccoons/nothing have tried for the pond) and that these turtles are able to be tankless and be the way nature intended.