General Care Discussion :: Female turtle/egg question

[treysmom]

I am very curious about my newly discovered "hey I'm a girl named Donatello." Her tail, nails and size all indicate she is indeed a female. She hasn't laid eggs for me, and I don't know if she ever produced eggs in the time the previous owners had her. I think that would be something they would have mentioned. I would assume that she would have to lay them at some point? She has been acting crazy the last few days, and there is some firmness in her back end, not that she's wild about me poking at her. Even without a specific nesting area, will she just lay these in the water when she needs to?

I am in the process of building her a "turtle condo," which will significantly increase the size of her basking platform/drydock area as well as provide a nesting box for her. It is a slow learning process for me as I have never owned a RES, but slowly she is going to end up as spoiled as the rest of my random rescue menagerie.

Anything else I need to do specifically for a female vs a male RES?

[swiltz]

U need a 120 gallon tank, in order to house an adult female res! Cuz they get really large compared to males.
Regarding a nesting area, it isn't really necessary unless u intend to breed ur female to a male... Do u have a male in the same community tank?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

If a female res doesnt have a male she may never lay eggs. Its just random like that. Some do and some never do. If yours doesnt consider yourself lucky that you dont have to grow through the process. 9 times out of 10 a res with out a nesting area will just lay her eggs in the water. Usually they only hold them if something is wrong with an egg that causes it to get stuck.

No difference in requirments between male and females accept for a nesting box and size of habitat. Justto add on most likely you will never need a 120 gallon tank for your female. Very rare for a female to get that large. Averages are between 7-9 inches so 70 gallon to 90 gallon.