General Care Discussion

i know this subject has appeared loads of times but im relitivly slow today and reading loads of posts really isnt going to be costructive.

so i read last week that someones turt was trying to escape the tank, then 3 days ago i noticed mine was doing the same. so it crossed my mind, ust to be on the safe side, to fill the rather lagre food bowl with sand. however, i have not yet managed to do so and now my turtle is sat in the food bowlnd has been for most of the day. every now and then its scratting tha food around with its hind legs.

now normal behaviour of my turtles is to freak out when i enter the kitchen and start cooking. however today the turtel has not budged. not an inch. and ive been in the kitchen for the last 2-3 hours baking bread and making lunch.

i cant get no sand till tomorrow, and untill the turtle moves i cant see what its up to. the last thing i want is to disturb it if its laying eggs.

in the mean time, i need to know what i should do.

my initial thoughts are this

waitl till turt moves, check for eggs throw some food into the water from the opposite end of the tank to keep the other turtles happy.

when i get sand and steralize it, should i cover the eggs and leave them a while to see if they hatch? if so, whats the best way to go about it? will the turt destroy the eggs if they have another scent on them?

at the moment, if it is doing what i think its doing, it has burried the eggs with food pellets. the spot is very warm.

will mother turt need to come back to sit on the eggs? or will she just abandon them? what about the other turts? will they leave them alone?

i would really like to see if the eggs hatch, so i need an idea of how long it takes for them to hatch and also a time frame of how long i should leave them to see if they are fertile?

as much information is needed as possible please..

If you have different genders in your tank, then you're likely going to have gravid females. I'll try to answer your questions in a list...

Females might not like to lay in a man-made nest, they are very instinctual
If the female is young, this won't be her best clutch - a good reason not to keep the eggs
There are few articles on incubation, but you'll want to keep it in a safe place
Turtles leave their nest alone, any destruction would be accidental
They hatch 60 to 90 days after they have been laid

thanks steve, the turtles now moved, i cant see no eggs so what it was doint sat skulking around in the food is beyone me, it still seems a little oddly behaved though. ive never seen any of my turts spend so much time out of water. im gonna keep my eye on things and see whats what, im getting sand today and am going to put some in a deep tray just incase. better safe than sorry.

the turt in question is about 10+ yo so theres a good chance if it does lay then they would be a good clutch. i have different sexes in my tak i would say, ive not sexed them as i just never bothered to do it.

As Steve mentioned most turtles don't like man made nesting areas. If you can try to take her outside when she starts going crazy in her tank. Let her walk around supervised to find her own nesting site. If you do incubate the eggs have you thought of where all the baby turtles will go? There is already an over abundance of RES. So much so that many shelters and rescue organizations won't even take them in. If it were me I wouldn't add to the problem.

im in the uk, theres loads of people i know who would happily take one or two. my eldest son would be given 2 for his house. and one of the neighbours keeps pestering me to give him some of my own turts. so ill find homes easy enough.

Good luck to you then. Try the outside method and then carefully dig them up and put them in an incubator. Or cover the outside area where she lays with chicken wire to keep them safe from predators and let nature do the work.

My turtle has also laid a egg or some?? I know atleast 1 cause she broke it while trying to cover it up. How many do they lay at one time? The eggs that mine laid are quite large and oblong. I have an area of white sand where she laid hers. I would like to try digging around and see if there really more eggs?

The amount of eggs can vary. I would not touch them until you have a place to incubate them. And when you do move them, make sure they say in the same orientation (some people will mark the top).

General Care Discussion :: UH OH! Think Turtles laying eggs What to do?

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