General Care Discussion :: Turtle ready to lay eggs

[AZCAT98]

One of my females has been searching for a place to lay her eggs for 10 days now. I think she has found her spot as she has been digging in my lawn for about at hour now.

My question is to weather or not to leave them burried under my lawn. i don't think the mowing will hurt them, but I live in Arizona and it's going to start getting pretty hot here. Will the eggs be okay with temps likely over 110 before they hatch or should I move them inside?

Thanks for your input.

[Hoooneylynn]

Is there a male present? Even if there is, those eggs might not be fertile anyways. This site might help you: It talks about making nesting boxes, temperature, and how to handle the eggs...

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

[AZCAT98]

Thanks for the link, but the AZ heat still worries me.

I have 2 males and 3 females.

[DavidY]

Seeing how the RES is not native to your area, i wouldn't think the eggs would survive. If you really want to raise the hatchlings (read this link and seriously consider what it means http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html) you should dig the eggs up and gently transfer them to a container of incubation media where you can monitor the temperature and humidity.

[Ferd]

Also, you MUST keep them upright or the turtets will drown in the fluids (or was it suffocate?) Anywho, from what i have read, using a sharpie wont hurt the turtle on the inside.

[Hoooneylynn]

yes, thats correct ... you have to keep them in the same position that they were laid otherwise they will die. And you cant move them around a lot, so once you transfer them into the house, you must be very careful. If you are worried about the heat outside, I would take them inside and build an incubator like david and that site says and monitor the temp. But you have to be VERY careful when digging them up because they cannot be turned upside down

[DavidY]

I used to use a small plastic spoon when digging up the bearded dragon eggs from their nesting box. Kind of like an archeologist when digging up a fragile pottery or something. Now I just dig carefully with my fingers and remove the eggs very gently, transferring them one by one into the incubation tray without turning them at all. You're right Ferd, they will drown in their own fluid if not kept in the same position as when they were laid. But they usually don't settle into position until a little while after being laid. I don't remember if it's minutes or like half an hour, but I still don't turn them even if it's right after the female has left the nest box.

[Hoooneylynn]

does anyone know what turtle embryos look like? How can they develop their shells in such few months? Doesnt it take like 4 months to hatch??

[kornygerm]

something like this.. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/sgilbe ... o2ribs.jpg

google it, it has some pictures..

[Hoooneylynn]

wow, thanks korny

[Hoooneylynn]

wow.. this is interesting:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

[AZCAT98]

Thanks for all your advise.