Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As an avid lizard and amphibian hoobyist I often see animals from my collection laying eggs but last night I watched 2 gigantic snapping turtles lay eggs in a gravel pathway next to my home.

These oldtimers have been using the same exact spot to lay their eggs for as long as I can remember. There has been a change in the substrate and volume of dog and people traffic. The eggs are right in the middle of a new public footpath. I put some sawhoses up to block the breeding area but there are a lot of dogs cruising through.

Any suggestions? Leave them alone, move to a better location? How long will they be til hatch? Temperatures in the ground?

Thanks
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BigMac
1.0 Mali Uro - Tank
1.0 Leo - Doobie
0.1 Chacoan Monkey Frog - Pilar
1.0 Corn Snake - Muka
0.0.1 Ball Python - Monty
0.0.1 Calif. Kingsnake - Asgar

Hey BigMac, unfortunately I cant offer you any help, I just wanted to add that I saw the exact same thing this morning and was about to ask a similar question. The snapper I saw was laying right beside the road. I live in a rural area and there are lakes on either side of the road. plus, its still dirt rather than stones. The problem I have now is that on my way home tonight, I stopped to check on the nest. Looks like something got into it and ate most of the eggs There is at least one still there. I covered it up a bit, but am I better to take that egg??? could is still hatch where it is? Should I just let nature take its course or should I maybe take the last one and try to incubate it, then release it into that same pond?

Unfortunately most eggs get eaten or destroyed. That is one reason they lay so many. A few years a go I went for a walk and found a snapper laying eggs. She dug 3 nest sites and deposited eggs in all 3 sites. When I returned from my walk a racoon had already raided and eaten all the eggs in the first 2 sites and was finishing up on the 3rd! It is amazing that any make it to adulthood to reproduce on their own.

i know that you can take the eggs and hatch them out. i think you have to be careful not to turn the eggs. must pick them up and set them down the way they are in the nest. i had a friend of the family take snapper eggs out of their garden that they were working on 2-3 yrs in a row and he had a majority of them hatch. i dont think he even did anything to heat them. just left them at room temp in a dirt/vermuculite mix. im sure a proper heating device and nesting substance would have been more ideal, but hey they did hatch. anyways, to answer the first two..........yes you can successfully take eggs and hatch them. i would find out proper incubating temps and set something up first. good luck