General Care Discussion :: Acting eggbound

[Bassgrrl]

Hi everyone! My first post is prompted by some anxiety I've been having about Danger, my 5-year-old RES. My friend who gave Danger to me seems to have been mistaken about "his" gender, as the turtle started acting peculiarly about a month ago. She started frantically trying to escape the tank, eating less, kicking back legs, firm bulges in the area between her hind legs and tail (is this where eggs can be felt/seen?).

Realizing the likelihood that she's harboring unfertilized eggs, I set up a nesting box with 50/50 topsoil/sand and a container of water on the other side, with both basking and UVB lamps overhead. I planned to alternate her between her regular water tank and the nest container, but she is extremely frantic in the tank and very calm in the nest container, so I ended up keeping her in there most of the time. She spent some time on the dirt, mainly basking, and once or twice even dug her back legs in a bit. Lately, though, she avoids the dirt and just stays in the water area of the container all the time, not kicking at all and completely calm. I placed her back in her regular tank today and she immediately started wildly kicking her back legs in the rocks at the bottom of the water, her tail got huge like it was going to release something underneath but nothing came out. I know they're not supposed to lay in the water, so how does it make sense that she will kick in the water but not in the dirt in the nest?

I'm sort of starting to panic because her behavior seems counterintuitive and she is not laying... but as I said she only started to have the egg behavior about a month and a week ago. Am I worrying too early?

Thanks in advance!

[steve]

The eggs could be felt in front of the hind legs, not behind it. How long have you had her? Was she kept with other turtles before?

[CactusJohn5]

Since my largest and oldest female died this summer due to complication from becoming egg bound, i ALWAYS recommend if you think it is eggs, take them to a vet for an xray. it should cost more than 100$ and they will be able to tell you immediately what is up (sideways egg, overly large egg) that it isn't a female at all ....

[Green Mango]

Hi there,

Turtles can be very stubborn and fussy about where they lay their eggs. I took Mango to the vet about a week after she started acting restless (she stopped eating during the week.... definitely time for the vet in that case!). Sure enough, there were 7 eggs. Nothing was physically stopping her from passing them: she just didn't want to use the theoretically ideal nest I provided.

The vet gave her calcium and oxytocin injections. Despite Mango and I having gone through this before, and Mango hating new places, the vet insisted on keeping Mango there all day to 'observe' her. No eggs. Mango came home and laid the eggs in her familiar nest area within 30 minutes.

So, turtles can hold on to their eggs if they don't want to leave them in the places they have available, especially strange places!

Also, Mango produced another batch of 8 perfect, full-sized eggs within a week of doing this. Evidently egg production doesn't take long. (Mango's aren't fertilised - this might make a difference???)

*You would feel eggs if you poked a finger into the space above her hind leg, towards the centre of her body. It can break the eggs, so I wouldn't actually do it!

Since a turtle can hold on to her eggs (for a medical reason or just because), I would definitely get your turtle to a vet.

Good luck with your turtle!