Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:25 am Re: X-Ray of Mama w/ Eggs
So what to make of this...
Sitting there working and hear "scratch, scratch, scratch" - turn around, and Penelope is just hanging out on her dock with her legs straight out, like she often does when soaking basking.
I go back to business and hear "scratch, scratch, scratch" again. I turn around and she is scratching the dock with her hind legs as one would do when scratching dirt.
I thinking, hmmmm...no signs of being gravid (i.e., trying to escape and other escapades), so I go back to my business again
"scratch, scratch, scratch" - now when I look, she has "assumed the position" and has her head extended. After about 5 minutes she stops, pulls her head in deep inside her shell, curls her tail and sits there.
So after a about 10 more minutes of the hermit routine, I checked her out. Her tail was turning pinkish as it did the last time she was straining.
I decided to take her out for some sunshine (and dirt) just in case...
I left her surrounded by 3 foot peg board (with a wire cover) as I go to get a water tray for her. It could not have been more than 3-4 minutes. When I get there, I see she had climbed to the very top, pushed off the wire and was on her way out! Geez!
OK - so scrap that idea.
Into a super tall, smooth sided bin with dirt on the bottom. She spent more time trying to escape than anything, so I off to plan "C"
I figured heck with it! put towels on the bathroom floor, took a bin and turned it on it's side - a mound of dirt 8 or so inches high - and left her to wander the bathroom. I left her there for a couple hours and could see she had scrounged around in the dirt, but no eggs.
He tail did not seem to be as pink as it was earlier...
That was around 5 pm.
Lights out at 9pm. There she is - hanging on her log, contorted in the "position"once again. I just shut the lights and walked away.
I went to take a peek a few minutes ago, and she is now hidden in the fake bamboo - tail raised, head out and couldn't see much more. Again - I just walked away.
So....she has not been showing signs of being gravid (crazy and trying to escape), but she has been sleeping more than usual and retracting her head more than usual the past two or three days, and tonight is the first time since resuming her appetite that she has not eaten her dinner.
I'm thinking if her tail area is pink again tomorrow, I will have to call the vet only because of the signs of straining...but other than scratching her dock and odd positioning, I don't see gravid behavior.
Trust me, she is definitely not constipated.
I stopped the over-thinking, over protective, analyzing every move stuff after her last vet visit...yet this strikes me as weird
I am just a little confused as to what to make of this.
Thoughts?
"I know up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights"
~ "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories" by Dr. Seuss ~
