Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey, ive been keeping a pair of res, but they are both females i think. they are both about 8 years old and i am thinking of breeding them. i keep them outdoors year round in southern cali, there are bricks for it to bask on but no land. can someone give me some info on how to breed res?

thanks alot

Well if you really want to produce more sliders (their are tons of them everywhere so it really isn't a great idea to make more -- but no lectures here just FYI) you would need a land mass for the female(s) to haul out on to lay their eggs. If you get an adult male and put him with the girls he should mate with them and then they will do all that they need to do. A land mass is necessary first though. You do not want the females retaining eggs in their bodies because they have no place to lay them.

Honuman is right about having a land mass and a male in order to breed. I am glad that he mentioned only getting one male, because you want your male to female ratio to be 1 male per 2 females. This way you won't have males fighting for females, and you won't have one poor female constantly having to fend off the over-ambitious male.

Good advice, thanks!

well honu mentioned it but the world has literally millions more sliders than it can accomodate as they are being bred in huge numbers in the southeast US. There are many unwanted sliders in adoption facilites (as i am sure honuman can attest to, right?)So if you must breed them at least consider adopting some adults that need a home.

BUT you will need a large land area and the more females the better, really. females are sometimes picky about nesting sites and most successful breeders seem to allow turtles to have a choice of harnesses and mositires levels and sunny shadiness in their land area for the females to pick from when searching for anest site.

also, dump the bricks; get wood or cork instead. bricks are abrasive to the plastrons of turtles (especially skittish ones) and they may contain arsenic which is of course toxic.

YES YES!! I forgot to mention that. Thanks for the reminder (duh -- been a busy day for me) Please go to Turtlehomes.org and fill out the application for one and send it along with a photo of your pond.

WE HAVE TONS!! I have taken in so many late season ones that my indoor stocktub concept has now evolved into an indoor POND. I was only taking in my two cooters from my pond for the winter. I now have a 2 malnurished male sliders, a blind juvenile slider and a morbidly obese (what I believe to be) swannee river cooter (though it has attributes of several other subspecies as well)who also has mbd AND I have an obese 10 inch female slider coming this weekend. (all these rehabs will remain with me but we still have many many more in need of good homes.) They come into TH on a daily basis.

So you see there are so many out there. I try not to get preachy about and I know how fascinating the whole breeding and hatching process is but at least go through the process of adoptin you male from turtlehomes. If you have an outdoor pond and it is all suitable you will not be turned down.

Shipping on the sliders is generally covered too so it would pretty much be a feebie (unless you wanted to give a donation to the cause). Well anyway think about it.

Steve

Unless you have a land area for laying eggs, you probably don't want to take on more turtles. Even females not exposed to males can lay non-fertile eggs, and could develop egg-binding, which can be fatal if not treated. Some females will lay in the water, and some will not. If you want to breed, try getting a few painteds or muds, and breed turtles that, in the eyes of the average public, make better pets.

If you expand your pond to include land, make sure the area/yard is escape-proof!

If your pond is large enough to accomodate more turtles (how big is the pond?), then consider adopting another female slider rather than breeding.

Katrina