Urgent Care :: Turtle has eggs!! Help!

[lizamarie0686]

My 7 year old res has eggs again. She hasnt laid them yet and i have no idea what to do, she is very hyper and keeps wanting out of her tank. She is up and down her basking ramp all day long. Im from NY an we have about 3 foot of snow here yet so she obviously cant go outside. Any suggestions? Please help!!

[Linus]

Fill a tub or container with about 4" of sand or a sand/dirt mix. Let her in there for an hour and see if that helps her.

[steve]

If you can time it to when she wants to lay them (morning, afternoon, etc) then you only need to take her out at that time. It might need to be deeper than 4" depending on her size, but it's worth a try.

[penelope]

yeah I see Penelope digging holes that are as deep as her back legs extended plus a couple of inches of shell.
The bin is a good idea, but the dirt may need to be deeper.
Learning from my own mistakes, just leave her be once you put her in the bin. If you keep peeking in it can shut her down, but.....
at first you need to keep within ear shot in case she chooses to spend the time trying to escape (that's what Penelope does, and she winds up on her back, so I had to ditch the bin idea)
I am sending some good egg laying karma your way

[lizamarie0686]

All she does is try to escape, how long can this go on before she becomes egg bound and trip to the vet is in order?

[steve]

I'm not sure of a set time, but my RES held them in for about 3 weeks before she laid them in water.

[lizamarie0686]

Ok thanks. ill wait about that long, it should be warmer out by then anyways. If she gets really sluggish ill take her to the vet.

[lizamarie0686]

I'm not sure of a set time, but my RES held them in for about 3 weeks before she laid them in water.

Was she extremely restless and trying to escape during that time? Mine never really tries to dig, just climb.

[steve]

She was for about a week or a week and half then just stopped.

[lizamarie0686]

She's digging, everywhere but the dirt. I got a giant spot in my room with dirt on some Paper on the floor, Its around 6 foot wide and long and 8-10 inches deep, but she don't lay them in it.

[penelope]

Oh! I know the feeling! I had Penelope locked in the bathroom with tons of dirt, but nothing happened except tearing up towels with her pseudo-digging
This year she went psycho for three solid weeks and then just stopped; no eggs. I give it another week before she starts up again.
You see, the first year she plopped them in the water ( I had no clue she was at the age to lay eggs)
The next year she was ill and the vet induced egg laying
Last year she had eggs & went crazy. Stopped as she built up more, went crazy again, and then stopped . Same cycle until she built up four batches of eggs and laid them all at once.
But....
The vet did xrays as that went on, so we knew she was not egg bound
This year I popped in to the vet, but since this non-egg laying is the norm, we just have Penelope on watch.
The point being - it doesn't always happen overnight, and it is stressful for us.
If this is the first time she has gone through this and she doesn't lay them, it may be worth a trip to the vet for an xray. Best case scenario is you get reassurance (some gals simply have trouble).
Just give her a quiet place to set up camp and hang in there!

[lizamarie0686]

She layed them last year out side, at this time. but this year is so much colder and A lot more snow. Can I ask you how much the vet cost? I want a rough estimate, The vet is over an hour away, So I'm trying to avoid it.

[Kansasslider]

Just kidding here! If you all bought Male turtles you wouldn't have to deal with egg laying. Once again just kidding but something to think about. Side note I also own a female but it should be a few more years before I have to deal with egg laying. Thank you all for the information.

[steve]

Vet costs will vary depending on where you live. But the first visit + x-rays would probably be around $150-200. Have you felt for eggs?

[lizamarie0686]

yeah, there in there I can feel them good. she's acting more sluggish today. Yeah I was afraid of the $100 or more. When will know there is a problem?