Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have 2 young res's about four to four and a half inches long (shell length, not including body) i have seen one of them "mount up" if you know what i mean recently.......if my female were to become pregnant, what would the signs be? where would she lay the eggs? what should i do with the eggs if/when i find them? what should i feed the young hatchlings? if you have any information on this particular subject, i would appreciate it.........thanks, kevin

Kevin,

I think your female is too small to lay eggs yet. If you were to have a gravid female, you'll need to supply an area to lay eggs. You also run the risk of egg-binding if she doesn't have an area she likes for laying. If you get eggs, I highly recommend that you freeze the eggs to prevent hatching. It may sound harsh, but there's nothing in a recently laid egg to feel pain, and there are so very many sliders already needing new homes, that it seems wrong to hatch more. I had an 8" female lay 13 eggs one spring - would you be able to find good homes for 13 turtles? If you really wanted to try to incubate, I'd say to just try with a couple of eggs rather than a whole clutch from a slider.

You might want to seperate the male and female to prevent any future mating.

Katrina

yeah, but what would i do if i found eggs, because i dont think it will be long, and i am going to try to keep a few of the hatchlings in the tank i used to use for my sliders i have right now.......what im asking for, is what do you do? heat lamp? what degree? does she need sand? soil? am i supposed to turn the eggs over every so often? thanks

Here is what was advised for me for my Musk turtle and it is pretty much the same for the RES. First and most important she will need a suitable place to lay her eggs, they are picky. You have to give her enough soil to bury her eggs in and this usually means 10 inches or so from what I am told. Then after she lays them you have a couple of options. You can leave them burried just as she laid them if it is in a removable container, then just keep it at room temp. say in a closet or something away from drafts and A/C. Or you can incubate them at about 82*, I am not possitive on the temps but I believe that is about mid range so you will end up with some males and females, if you go higher you will get females and lower will be males. Be sure you never turn the eggs, they MUST stay just as she layed them. If they are turned it will kill the baby inside, they are not like bird eggs that need to be turned to develope right. If I have advised wrong someone please correct me, this is how I done my muskie and it all worked good except for my own mistake of dumping the dirt when I thought she had not layed the eggs. She was sneaky and laid them with out me noticing, I should have just left every thing alone and I might be having a baby musk turtle about now. Oh well .. lesson learned I guess. Good luck, though I suspect from what you said of her size it will still be a nother year or so before she actually lays you some eggs.
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Slow and Steady wins the race...