Habitat - Outdoor :: Outdoor wandering female

Ponds and other outdoor enclosures.

Post Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 10:49 pm   Outdoor wandering female

Hi! I have a female RES that is about 8 inches and a male about 10 inches outside in the bigger of the two ponds in my yard. (I have no clue how old they are) She vanished a while back for months and I thought she had gotten snatched but she came back and has been happy in the bigger of the two ponds for the last several months. A week ago my neighbor found her buried under the dirt in her planter adjacent to my fence about three feet from the bigger pond (I didn't think she could get through the slates in the fence ): So we put her back in the pond and now before I got a chance to close the fence, I haven't seen her for the last few days. I live in Brea CA and it has not gotten to anywhere near 50 degrees at night yet. So I'm wondering if others think she is trying to hibernate so early? Or is she trying to find a place to nest? And in either case, should I disturb her again if she is back in the dirt? I've always tried to make everything as natural as possible for them so I don't want to mess things up and I'm really torn on what to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!
D.J.
 
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 8:12 am   Re: Outdoor wandering female

Are you sure the male is 10"? That's pretty rare for them to get that big and frankly, most adult male RES are half that size.

It sounds like she is trying to brumate but doing so out of water is not normal as they are still alert. I've heard of some keepers doing this as well, but not outdoors. Could the male be harassing her to the point she wants to get out? How big are the ponds?
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steve
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Post Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2016 8:57 pm   Re: Outdoor wandering female

We are measuring all the way around, circumference. From side to side we think he is more like 4 to 5 inches. He could be bugging her but we have seen her take food before him, actually crawl over him to get where she wants to go and seems basically more dominate than him. I don't know for sure but we're guessing the bigger pond is around 300 gallons and the smaller one is around 100. She used to stay in the smaller one but I think it got too small and that's why she left it. It really isn't that cold and the male hasn't really slowed down at all.
D.J.
 
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Post Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 5:48 am   Re: Outdoor wandering female

Is it easy for them to leave the pond?
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steve
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