General Care Discussion :: At what age does the RES Turtle laid eggs?

[izahhelenna]

I have 4 and i dont even know whc one r male or female..
i need help plz..

[megcornell]

I can't really tell from the photos but it looks like you have at least one male and some females. If you look at their nails you can more easily tell. Males have long front claws and thick tails and females have shorter front nails.

Most females don't start laying eggs for a few years, but being in the same tank as males certainly can speed things up. The best thing to do is to watch for signs of gravid (pregnant) females. Here's a link describing the symptoms and how to set up a nest site for them.
http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html

[izahhelenna]

i think that i have 3males and 1 female..or 2females and 2 males.
this another female look so smaller than the youngest(the big scale)

[izahhelenna]

so,ive checked of them.
the 1st,2nd and 3rd have long and wide tails,long nails,small sized scale (they r almost3yrs)compare to my youngest(not even a year) with small tail with short nails,but she is 2x more bigger than them..at first i was thinking they r having health problem cos they stopped growing more,

[Lantic]

Lovely turtles!

[Rubicon]

Wow those are some big sliders!!! What size tank do you keep them in? How often do they get to explore the yard?

[Rubicon]

Also by that size you should EASILY be able to tell them apart. Heck you can tell my lil 3" male is a male plain as day. His nails are twice as long as the females if not more and his tail is huge!

[Azfar]

Wow~! what a lovely turtles you have..

So jealous you have four of them~! =P

[TheComputerGremlin]

So back to your original question: There is no set age for laying eggs, but having males around will definitely speed things up. Usually you want to start looking for gravid behavior at around 2 years old and 5-6". However, nature does what it wants, so sometimes it's sooner, sometimes it's later. Sometimes females never lay eggs! Considering you have a big girl there, she is likely to attack the males when they start pestering her to mate, so you may need to have a spare tank around to separate them when the time comes. Separating them will also prevent any viable eggs being laid. I'd imagine that if closely watched, they can still have their grass time together, but be separated in their tanks.

[izahhelenna]

Oh..wow,u guys really helped me alots!!Thanx..
well,the youngest (female) ive been taking care of her not even year but i tink she had became too obsessed wit foods,i measured her and she is 8inches long.she does eat alots compare to the no.1,no.2 and no.3,they love to play together (pick-a-boo) and less concentrate on their foods.Oh yeah,they r all 6inches long.

[izahhelenna]

Wow those are some big sliders!!! What size tank do you keep them in? How often do they get to explore the yard?

Their aquarium is 5fts (length) and 2fts (width),not that big tank but thatz the only one that i could find..lolz!!

Mostly,i wil do that once a day(weekdays) but if weekend,ill give them 3x a day..They will explore the whole yard only if i walk with them...as soon as i put them on the grass,they will start moving everyway as they wanna,and they r very very fast, i tot tortz walk very slow,rite?..the most favorite spots for the males r besides of the flower vases and under the palm trees..but my female,she jus walk a bit,moving around and she wil sit besides me. The males love to climb up and down of the terrace,from left garden to right side garden,even they explore the whole house and the very tiny spaces as they could get into,the last time..i couldnt even find them..i tot they went out from the gates...luckily,by suprised i fond them under the palm trees...im almost wanted to cry!!

[TheComputerGremlin]

So without knowing the height of the tank, I'm guessing you are somewhere in the 150 gallon range. Right now, your four turtles need between 170-260 gallons, so you may want to consider upgrading your tank, maybe building a pond of some type out in the yard? If they all get to full size, you may want as many as 400 gallons, but in a pond, that's not too bad, and then they'll have a lot of freedom.

As for feeding, it sounds like you may be overfeeding the female. You want them each to get a half-head sized amount of food daily. If you are feeding standard pellets, I would estimate about 10 pellets for each of the males and maybe about 14 for the female? It's okay to cut back on feeding them, otherwise they will experience pyramiding (which some of your pictures indicate you may have a slight bit going on already). Pyramiding will drastically decrease their lifespan and cause health problems. Also, you want to get them on veggies- lettuces, carrots, apple peels, whatever you can get ahold of in your country- as soon as possible. This will help out with feeding and won't increase the pyramiding like straight protein does.