General Care Discussion :: Laying eggs in the water

[florzinha]

Hi everybody,

18 months ago, I found an abandoned turtle near a village pond. She was weak and almost dead. I gave her vitamins, calcium, a huge tank, right temperature, a basking area with UVA light, a diversified diet and lots of love. She recovered very quickly and has been healthy since. She measures around 12inches and I don't know how old she is.

Over the past month, I noticed that she started to dig and, after researching the net, I made a big nesting box for her. However she refused to stay there. I tried to leave her there more than 10 times. She enjoyed trying to dig in the living room carpet instead. She seemed healthy, was eating, basking, etc. Today, though she layed 13 eggs in the water.

After that, she ate her pellets and went basking. She doesn't seem to be stressed. I removed the eggs from the water but now I am unsure of what to do with her.

I live in the Czech Republic, where we only have 1 month of warm weather a year so RES are not found in the nature. I have had difficulty trying to find a specialized vet so it's basically me and her.

Could she be in trouble after laying her eggs in the water?

Thanks a lot

[Vtolds]

Generally its not as good as them laying them in soil in a box or out side but it seems that the water has worked for her. To answer your question about age it is very hard to tell but I can tell you she is a full grown adult.

[florzinha]

Thanks, Vtolds.

I am not worried about her age as I know it's virtually impossible to find out the age of a turtle that is no longer a baby.

As for the water laying, well, she went for a little walk around the house and she seemed fine. I put her back in the tank and she's been swimming and basking. However her bottom is still quite hard as it was before she laid the eggs. Is it a normal condition just after she laid eggs or does it mean that she has yet to lay all of them? In this case, should I keep her in the water, where she seems quite happy, or should I put her in the nesting box, even though she keeps fighting to get out and don't dig the soil? I thought that latter should be the ideal but I don't want to stress her out and having her ending up stressed and egg bound. What do you think? Thanks again

[TheComputerGremlin]

Sometimes bean bags/bean bag chairs work for turtles, they like to dig around in the cloth and find a happy place. As for if you're concerned she's keeping eggs in, you can possibly try (and this is just an idea) contacting a vet here in the states and seeing how to take an X-ray of the turtle and see if you can send them the X-ray, then find a doctor that would be willing to take a turtle X-ray for you. Otherwise, I'd just keep trying to get her to lay the remaining ones and hopefully she will. The more she gets comfortable with the box, the sooner she'll use it for nesting.

[megcornell]

To see if your turtle has more eggs, you can gently palpate the area right in front of her hind legs. I'd be very cautious doing this because you can break an egg inside her doing this and that can be deadly.

[jenaero]

I don't have a lot to add to this topic, as I've never had to deal with egg laying (yet), however it's important that you make sure she has plenty of calcium in her diet. Do you offer cuttlebone? This is super important for a turt that has just layed eggs. Good luck

[industrial_girl_2000]

Sometimes bean bags/bean bag chairs work for turtles, they like to dig around in the cloth and find a happy place. As for if you're concerned she's keeping eggs in, you can possibly try (and this is just an idea) contacting a vet here in the states and seeing how to take an X-ray of the turtle and see if you can send them the X-ray, then find a doctor that would be willing to take a turtle X-ray for you. Otherwise, I'd just keep trying to get her to lay the remaining ones and hopefully she will. The more she gets comfortable with the box, the sooner she'll use it for nesting.

In the past, a bean bag in the living room worked great for Sheba too.

Another guy on here posted one time that his turtle was gravid during the summer season, so he took her out to a farmer's field where she laid her eggs in the soil. He then destroyed them after she laid them because RES's are very overpopulated in his area of the world.

[SpotsMama]

The backs of a turtle's hind legs will normally be hard because there are bones there. Where you can feel eggs is in front of the hind legs but you have to feel very gently because you don't want to break any.

Hopefully she's through laying for the season but she may not be. Some turtles lay eggs in groups - a few now and more in a couple of weeks. If she starts acting like she wants to lay again, best try again to find her a suitable place outside the tank.

I wish there were a way to communicate with them to tell them it's ok to lay in a nesting box. So many of them refuse to do so.

[marisa]

If she's laid 13 eggs and seems fine, I wouldn't worry about her wanting to lay more, unless she began to show signs she's gravid. Can you make the nesting box a bit more accessible to her so she can get into it if she wants to?

[Bumby's Mom]

Do you have a UVB light? I didn't see one mentioned but it is a necessary item for a turtle.

[florzinha]

Thanks everyone.

I am watching her and she seems fine. I'll keep on watching in order to spot any behaviour that gives me the hint that she is still gravid.

As for the UVB light and calcium, yes she's got both and she loves her basking area. It's impossible for me to adapt a nesting box in her tank. I have spend thousands and an enourmous amount of time trying to make the tank confortable and practical but she never liked the nesting box. Nowadays it's separated from the tank but I take her out for a few hours everyday to walk around the flat. She loves the carpet but she won't go near her nesting box. She just doesn't like it. My last resort was to make the nesting box in a way that she could go in and out when she was walking around the flat so that she would not feel trapped there and it would seem that I didn't tell her to lay her eggs there but rather that she chose the place (being the only place she could actually dig a hole instead of all the work she tries to do in the carpet) but still she won't go there and gets stressed if I put her in there.

I'll keep watching her and update on this story soon. Thanks a lot for all the advices.

[florzinha]

Just to update, it turned out that my turtle was still gravid after the 14 eggs she laid in the water. Two days ago, she laid 7 more. This time, she chose to lay them on my husband's hands. She still won't use the nesting box. I believe and hope that she is now done for the season.

[SpotsMama]

That's hilarious about your husband's hands! He must be a really nice guy! Glad to hear it worked out.

[Take-One]

Nice. I would BOIL my hands after that.

[Spookster]

Our turtle refuses to lay her eggs anywhere but the water. We've tried everything from building nice elaborate nesting areas to just letting her roam around a huge yard with bushes and dirt and plenty of places to lay. So far we've not had any problems with her retaining eggs.