General Care Discussion :: male and female together

[Hatchling71]

I recently found out for sure that one of my two turtles is a male (a little startled at first wondering what that creeply black thing sticking out of my turtle was, the other is a female. The male, Ducky, is quite flirtatious with Lucy and I'm worried that if she gets pregnant she'll die because she has nowhere to lay her eggs, nor would I even know she was pregnant. The male is a about 4 inches, definately younger than Lucy and she's about 5-6 inches. I can't seperate them because I don't have another tank and I'm not going to get one, this one is trouble enough. Any suggestions?

[Hatchling71]

anyone?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Only thing you can do is watch for signs that she has eggs. Digging with back feet into nothing, losing her appetite, stopped basking and has become restless.

Learn to feel for the eggs. This video shows how to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gdIX8wIuZs

In most cases turtles just lay there eggs in the water if they cant find a nesting area.

If you do happen to find she has eggs look into making a nesting box to set her up in to lay the eggs.

[theartbook35]

I don't have any advice for you about raising turtle babies...

I'd just like to warn you that there is a history of larger turtles coming after smaller turtles, especially if it is a male to female pair. You know your turtles way better than me, but if the female gets too aggressive towards the male or bites him, they should be separated.

Granted, Painteds has pairs that live together quite nicely and don't have any problems. The way turtles get along seems to depend on their individual personalities I guess.

[bigG]

I have a male and a female RES. When the female is gravid, I try to let her run around outside to dig a nest. She may spend up to an hour digging but usually never lays an egg outside. She seems to prefer the tank for everything (eating, using the bathroom, etc.) and everytime I've seen her "laying" her egg in the water and devouring it afterwards.[/u]