General Care Discussion :: creating a nest now or just wait for the moment

[fultonh]

I have a 5 1/2 year old female turtle, which is about 6" large. I have read everything on this site, especially the reproduction page lately. I know that the site said that sometimes the female lay eggs without a male and i have a few questions that the reproduction page didn't discuss:

- how often do females do this a year and will it just depend on the turtle when they begin to produce eggs?

Her basking area right now is stacked flat slate, so should this be changed to an area with soil/sand just in case or not? Should i just wait until i notice her showing signs?

[megcornell]

When and how often turtles lay seems to be pretty individual between turtles. Some on here have had multiple clutches while others have much fewer.
As for setting up the nest site, I'd wait until your turtle shows signs of being gravid like loss of appetite and restlessness. Adding a nest site to your tank means she'll be tracking in a lot of debris to the water which will make cleaning much more difficult and more frequently needed. I think most people opt for a separate nesting area that isn't connected to the tank. That's what I am planning to do when my female is gravid.

[fultonh]

okay thats what i figured but i was worried that i might miss the signs, but i think id be able to notice her lack of appetite seeing as she always has one lol.

[Cramer]

Not all of the typical signs are consistant. My RES was begging for food and ate like a pig the day she laid a clutch. Then I fed her after too. So, don't rely on any one symptom. The best way to be sure, but you must do it carefully, is to feel their stomach inside the back leg opening with your finger. If she has eggs, you'll feel em. But don't jam your finger in, just touch. If you rupture an egg, you'll have problems!

[fultonh]

im assuming the stomach area would also be a little swollen looking (bigger than usual anyways)? Is there any others signs or beneficial advice from personal experiences about this topic?

[Bumby's Mom]

The "belly" doesn't get bigger since the belly is their HARD hard shell I noticed absolutely nothing different in appearance when my female was ready to lay. There is definitely a change in mood though. Most turtles try escaping their tank or they are constantly digging. My female was really moody and didn't want me touching her in any way and she was spending a lot more time in the water pacing. Now once she laid her eggs she was completely wore out and just laid on her dock all day and all night, wouldn't even come into the water to eat she just wanted sleep under her heat lamp. Mine laid hers in the water because when I put her in a dry box with gravel (not reccomended since gravel is bad for turts, didn't know that at the time) she completely freaked out. I have only had Nyxie since May and she has only laid 2 eggs that turned into my super cute babies Gimli and Marvolo
(I have painted's, not RES, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not)

[mogall]

Meg,

You mentioned having a nesting area that is connected to the tank. Any advice on how to accomplish this without having something literally inside the tank? I have two females that are now exhibiting gravid behavior. I've set up a area in an old 20gal with soil from outside, but they HATED it. I'm stressing out, worried I won't provide them with the right environment and that they will hold the eggs. I'm as nervous as they act.

[Xait]

Hey what is the minimum age that you guys have heard of that a female RES laid her eggs? I dont want to be waiting and waiting for it to happen for 2 years you know? I got one of my 2 RES September/29/07 I tihnk its a female because its a heck of a lot bigger than the other one. even thought its about 1" bigger 1" looks like a lot compared to a RES.

[SpotsMama]

Mogall, where do you live? Is there any chance you could take your turtles outside and let them pick the spot? Of course, if you live at the north pole and the ground is frozen solid that wouldn't work.

Xait, here's some reading on the subject that you might find helpful. The age that females mature varies but generally it's when they get to be around 5" long.

http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html

[mogall]

Spot,

I live in Southern California (in a condo) so there is not a lot of "undisturbed" area for me to be able to take them out and let them roam. Yet, now that I think about it, there is the area under my balcony that is quiet and rather large (it's where I got the dirt from that I put in the 20gal aquarium). I'll give it a try Saturday (it's too late when I get home in the evening). Hopefully no one will question why there is a women sitting under the balcony talking to a couple of turtles. Then again, it is Calfornia....
I sure hope something gives soon. My smaller girl is trying to dig on her ZooMed floating dock and it sounds terrible. I'm afraid she's going to rip out a nail or two.

One more question- if they don't lay soon, any idea at what point would a trip to the vet be called for? I felt the area between her tail and leg and I'm sure I felt what seemed like an egg shape.

[marisa]

Feeling between the tail and the leg won't tell you if your turtle has eggs in her. You need to gently feel in front of the rear leg toward the stomach. If she has eggs and they're big enough, they'd feel like grapes.

[jkw]

Thanks, Marisa -
That's helpful advice (where to feel). I thought my gal was/is exhibiting nesting behavior and fixed up sand/compost spot in one half of an unused 10 gallon aquarium. After a few minutes, she promptly buried herself UNDER the dirt!! She burrowed under until she was completely covered. She remained that way for over an hour while I cleaned her tank. Is this 'normal' behavior? Ambient temperature in the room was about 70 and her water is a constant 73-78 and I had her basking light over it....
In any case, I dug her out, rinsed her off and stuck her back in her 75 gallon home when I was finished. She was clearly agitated but settled down enough to eat a few pellets. I'll check the 'egg spot' later...

[mogall]

Thanks Marisa. I'll do a bit more investigating.... if she'll let me.

I found a couple of set up that I would like to share. GREAT examples on some in tank nesting areas and I would love to do something like this... Feed back anyone?



Here is the link to more pictures of this setup

http://pets.webshots.com/photo/10622524 ... vhost=pets

This is the one I think I could actually do... but I would raise it more towards the top and build an above tank basking area.



This one seems a bit more realisitc (in terms of adaptability)..


Here's one that glasscages.com sells..They customize so you could get the "land area" made deeper.


I like the idea of using the clean sand because even if she drags some back into the tank, it wouldn't be hard to syphon out.
Definetly has me thinking that this could be done after all. With two females just entering the egg-laying game, having something inside the tank certainly would make thier lives better, not too mention reduce my worrying. I think I would still do something like this even if I had males.


Would love some feedback.

[SpotsMama]

The difficulty I've heard of with this type of setup is keeping the turtle from dragging a lot of substrate back into the tank. Also, the recommended substrate is a mixture of dirt or compost and sand, I believe. Supposed to be prefered by turtles. Turtles can be very picky about where they lay.

If you can do this and make it work, that would be very interesting news. I think a lot of people would like to be able to do it this way. Providing a good spot for laying that the turtle will actually use seems to be a real challenge.