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Hi! My turtle Wasabi is doing well! I'm just concerned that she might be getting fat. First off, she has no bulging of any sort on her front end and I have never had trouble with overfeeding her. She is about 7 years old. She laid her first egg several months ago and has not laid another since. I have been feeding her a little bit less recently to see if that had an impact, but the bulging only seems more prominent. Her behavior hasn't changed and she has been basking regularly. I think that perhaps she's been cooking up a bunch of eggs, but hasn't been laying them which I know is not good. She laid her egg before in the water, but maybe because the water is a lot deeper now she wont. It stresses her out to be outside the tank. It is impossible for me to check her by touching the area because she will not for the life of her let my fingers under her legs. Oh boy that didn't sound very clean!

I will post a picture. Please tell me what you think! See her little bulge there? You can see her fishy friend too!

Hi!!
Your girl looks great. Mine has the bulging also. Pretty normal for larger turts. The bulging is just fat. Not eggs. When the turt is gravid, u cannot see the eggs. Only feel, and or know because of the actions of your turt. My girl is CRAZY when gravid!!! Lol
If she isnt showing ANY signs, i wouldnt be worried at all.
And rarely any turt lets you just feel for eggs. The only way to do it is pretty much get them out walking, get behind them and when their legs are extended, push a finger gently into the fatty part in front of the rear leg, then move it around. Its usually pretty deep, but if shes gravid you can normally feel hardness in there.
But if she wont let you feel. Just watch her behaviour. She'll probably "tell ya"
Good luck!!

Thanks a lot! When she had her egg before she was acting weird, so I'm sure if something starts bugging her she'll give me the signs. It's a relief a bit of tubbiness like that isn't necessarily unhealthy. The tubbiness doesn't show all the time, but I just wanted to make sure.

You might just want to cut down on the food if she's showing it that much.

Most of the time it's not that noticeable, but I have been cutting down her food. I don't want her to get uncomfortable or unhealthy...