Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have 2 gravid females. They both laid eggs last year and both had one hatch fully formed, but both of the hatchlings were on their backs when they pipped.(see "Hatchling" further down the forum) But any way one of my females, Cece, has been gaining wait since the male got into breeding mode.(which was in the very begining of March) She is so fat that she can't even get her head and legs past the rim of her carapace much less close up completely. Every time she comes out to eat or to sun the male is after her and chases her back under a log. He does the same thing to the other female, Daisy, but she just started gaining wait last week so i'm not as worried about her. But what do i do till i can build an egg laying pen? What if she has to lay before i can get it done? I don't know much about egg laying since i only had one clutch last year and i want to get these 2 right. My friend had Daisy. Any help will be greatly appreiciated.

For starters, remove the male to his own enclosure. He will not allow the females to properly search and dig their egg chambers. He can cause them a lot of stress during a period when, if these were wild turtles, females would have nothing to do with males. If you cannot build a proper egg laying pen, at least dig up an area in the pen they are now in and top off the area with a soft top soil mixture. My turtles will dig their nest in soft aoil that I have packed the surface down with my foot. The soil should be without rocks and sticks. Good luck, Tess

>>i have 2 gravid females. They both laid eggs last year and both had one hatch fully formed, but both of the hatchlings were on their backs when they pipped.(see "Hatchling" further down the forum) But any way one of my females, Cece, has been gaining wait since the male got into breeding mode.(which was in the very begining of March) She is so fat that she can't even get her head and legs past the rim of her carapace much less close up completely. Every time she comes out to eat or to sun the male is after her and chases her back under a log. He does the same thing to the other female, Daisy, but she just started gaining wait last week so i'm not as worried about her. But what do i do till i can build an egg laying pen? What if she has to lay before i can get it done? I don't know much about egg laying since i only had one clutch last year and i want to get these 2 right. My friend had Daisy. Any help will be greatly appreiciated.
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Tess
Kingsnake.com Forum Host

I have been to your website it helped me decide wether or not i wanted a box turtle. It is very informative and it helped me alot.

Three weeks ago, when I found out my female eastern box turtle was gravid, I sectioned off a 4 X 10 ft. part of thier pen and loosened the soil in several places in the sectioned off part. By sectioning it off, it allowed Ethel (female eastern boxie) to be alone in the pen, away from the hassles of the males. It worked successfully for me, so you may want to try doing it.

Steve

do you think that this little female will lay eggs in a 50 gal rubbermaid container again. She has been moved outside since then. Will that have any effect on whether or not she will lay there again. Oh and do you remember a person named Dan from last summer? Just wondering.