General Care Discussion :: laying eggs

[mackadocious]

i have both a male and female.....they're at least 5 years old.....not sure exactly since they were rescued....was unaware till last night that females may lay eggs regardless of whether they've been fertilized....and i'm pretty sure hank has not been taking care of business--haha....seriously though, patsy laid 3 in the water last night and i was reading some stuff on here so am doing my best to provide a nesting area, which is unfortunately outside of the tank....

i used a cardboard box along with some 'just add water' compacted 'organic material' or dirt or whatever from the pet store and moved the light from the tank to the box and put her in it a little while ago....

just wondering if anyone has any advice on enticing her to lay the other eggs, if there definitely are other eggs, the best way to tell, etc, etc.....

my friend's dad is a vet, don't know if he is experienced with reptiles or not, will find out shortly in case of problems but any advice would be helpful as the pet store was pretty worthless.....

thanks!

[grey goose]

http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/Nestsites.htm

Some info on mating and nesting......

[mackadocious]

i read over that stuff last night when we found the eggs.....my only question i guess from that stuff is what constitutes a 'large' turtle??....she's about 8" long...i've seen them bigger, but not much...

[SpotsMama]

The grown female RESs that people talk about on the forum are 11" to 12" inches of shell length - not counting the head and tail, nor the curve in the shell. The males are smaller. Mostly they'll stop growing at 7" to 9". The females can lay eggs at around 5".

[mackadocious]

so i know my initial attempt at nesting is NOT going to work.....i just went in to check on her again and she was on her back....she's back in the tank for now after bein stressed.....we were thinkin we might try to slope the dirt up to the sides so that she can't get so much on her hind legs but then i run the risk of her getting out....plus, anyone know if she will even attempt in the 1x2 foot box initially offered??...i might be able to get a real large, flat cardboard box from work but that's a lot of friggin dirt to fill.....frustrated!!

[Hoooneylynn]

Hey mackadocious, what size tank do you have them in?

[mackadocious]

it's a 40 gallon long.....i know it should be bigger, but they're gonna have to wait a couple more months till i get a better job cause the size tank they need isn't exactly easy to find and so of course not cheap.....

[mackadocious]

she's laid a fourth egg....but it was in the water again....i think she just laid it though so i'm hopin she just likes to in the morning.....

[industrial_girl_2000]

she's laid a fourth egg....but it was in the water again....i think she just laid it though so i'm hopin she just likes to in the morning.....

Drat, I SOOOO know how you feel since I went thru similar times with my female RES many yrs ago. Honestly, they will lay eggs any time of the day, & in any number. I recall letting my RES out to lay her eggs, and she would always head for the bean bag & lay them under there. It wasn't ideal, but at the time (12-14 yrs ago) no one knew anything about turtles, nesting, diseases, etc. The vets were *completely* useless! So I just let Sheba out in the living room & she laid eggs about 3x yearly under our bean bag. And if I didn't catch her in time, she would lay eggs in the tank too.

One thing you can do to possibly get her to stop laying eggs is to get rid of the male. Ever since I gave my male away, Sheba laid eggs for about a year or two after he was gone, and hasn't laid them since. She has been egg-free for about 6 yrs now and it has been wonderful.

You may want to take your turt to the vet & have her xrayed to see how many eggs she has left to lay. And the vet may be able to inject her with a hormone that will aid in laying them so that she lays ALL of them. The bad thing is that if she doesn't lay them all, it can be fatal for her. I wish you the best of luck & keep us posted!

[bradwc2002]

http://reslider.free.fr/backup/breeding.html
thats what ive gone by, and with them being laid in the water, you would have to catch them in the first 45 min or so or they usually drown, the thin membrane around the eggs wont keep out water, so they still might hatch but it could be useless, it takes around 80days for them to hatch anyways. good luck though

[mackadocious]

oh i have no interest in breeding....that would take way more time then i've got right now.....she laid a 5th egg today......no one was home to get it out though and one of them ate it....mmmm, cold boiled egg......they left the shell behind though......anyone know if that's really bad for them??

i read stuff saying you should take the eggs out so they don't eat them, but i don't know if that's just for people interested in breeding them or if it's really bad for them....we were all workin today so nothin we could do but they seem okay.....

[rocketright]

Uhoh... Turtles laying eggs in the water is not good for them at all... Turtles should have a egg laying area... They can become egg-bound because if they only have a choice in the water then they will keep the eggs in them, well even one will be fatel... I know you may not like this but it has to be done...

You need a soil area about 1 foot x 1 foot, and about 10 inches deep, make sure the soil has no chemicals in it, and leave her in there for a bit. (2 or 3 hours) If she keeps laying eggs in the water she may die... So by the middle of this week I would make sure you had this done.

[daredevilgirl013]

Uh oh..you mean to tell me that Michelangelo may start laying eggs soon since she's almost 5 inches..oh goodness I hope not...I have no nesting site available to her at all. And taking her outside isn't an option. I though that they laid eggs after they were 5 years old..not 5 inches!!!

Industrial....do you think that since Michelangelo has really never been around a male that she won't lay eggs? That's what I'm hoping...at least at this point..cause I figured I still had at least 3-4 more years to go before I had to worry about this stuff...

[SpotsMama]

I know there doesn't have to be a male present for them to lay eggs. And they can mature a lot sooner than 5 years depending on their habitat and diet.

[rocketright]

Hmm, Maybe when she is 8 inches, or 3 years old... Sorry, didn't know how big she was, but turtles can lay eggs without a male present, they are like chickens... But they will be unfertile...