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I have a five year old female RES who has become incredibly restless during the past week. She has been a very mild mannered turtle during the past three years I have owned her but lately her mood has become increasingly restless. She splashes and swims around frantically in her tank all day now and refuses to eat when she is fed. She still basks but when she is in the water she splashes incessantly. The water temperature and quality are just fine so I'm thinking this has to do with egg laying. For the years I've had her, she has never laid eggs. Can anyone please help me out with what to do with this issue? How can I set up a proper area for her to feel comfortable enough to lay eggs?

Thanks!

Welcome. Given what you've written, being gravid is a definite possibility. You could set up a nesting site for her (look at the section on the site for info on this). People have met with varying degrees of success doing this, though. You could also, if it's warm enough, take her outside to an area where she could find a place to do her digging.

After my female came out of her winter slowdown, she became very active and was splashing continuously. She would splash even if there wasn't anybody around. I knew that she was gravid, so I took her outside to let her dig around in the backyard. I never saw any eggs, but she stopped the excessive splashing. Now she just does her normal begging for food which is a milder case of frantic swimming and following anyone inside the room.

So we took her outside today and let her run around for a couple hours. I felt her abdomen between her hind legs and I could definitely feel eggs.
Unfortunately, the entire time she was outside, she refused to calm down to lay eggs. We tried to pin her in a small area but she would just struggle until she found a way to escape.

After awhile we gave up for the day and brought her back inside. She laid no eggs but she is calmer for the time being. Presumably because she wore herself out.

Anyone have any suggestions for making a nesting area she will actually use but won't escape from?

As soon as she is showing some signs of wanting to nest, let her out. She needs to find a spot she'd like, it's very instinctive. So a confined area might not yield any results. Once she starts making a nest, she'll say until she is finished.