I cut a hole in the plywood floor and sunk a large tub into the floor so the lip sits on the plywood and filled it with dirt. She came over, snifffed around a long time, walked nearby and tried to dig up the plywood. I moved her over to it again, she did the same thing. The difference now was that she did not even stop digging when I came around - she really wanted to dig. Then I walled off the area she was digging so that she could not go there and placed her back over the dirt. I came back a little later and she had her front legs in the dirt and her rear legs out of the dirt and was digging the plywood just outside the dirt! I gently moved her forward 8 inches so that her back legs were in the dirt this time, she paused, waited, waited, and then started digging in the dirt!!



4 hours, 15 minutes later I went to bed with her still digging, and she was making no new progress because her plastron was sitting on the edge of the plastic tub and her back legs were dangling over the hole - she wanted it deeper but could not get herself down any further. Nothing I could do but cross my fingers.



Long story longer, I got up at 2:30 am to check on her and SHE DID IT! she layed the eggs and covered the hole. The cool thing was that the tub was nearly clear plastic so we could watch her dig from below because she had dug all the dirt away from one side of the tub - up close and personal. She laid 5 new eggs in addition to the one last week.



Now we just wait - and thanks for the suggestion.



Ben

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