Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 4 turtles, 3 red-eared sliders and 1 yellow belly. Three females and one male. The male has chosen one of the females to mate with but ignores the other two. My question is will the other two females lay eggs without mating with the male? They have shown signs of wanting to lay like my mated female does. Will it happen?

My question is will the other two females lay eggs without mating with the male?

Wow, I don't wanna say that's a dumb question, but it is. Unless the other 2 females mated back in the past like a year or two ago they cannot produce fertile eggs without mating.
Michael

Turtles can lay eggs that are not fertal. Just like a chicken so my question was valid.

Yes they will want to lay eggs. They are like chickens, they dont necessarily have to lay fertile eggs. They have the need to lay the eggs, and it is very important that you let them lay the eggs because if they dont they may become eggbound and have serious complications. My turtles always show signs of wanting out of the tank, thats when I know I need to give them some dirt to dig in. I have a horse feeder that has two sides to it. When its laying time I just put one half dirt and the other half water. I don't keep the RES eggs, because of the over population of them, but it also works well for my painteds and musk turtle... My husbandry skills werent good enough this year to actually hatch any eggs but I will keep trying. I hope this helped.
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Slow and Steady wins the race...

Females of many species regularly produce non-fertile eggs. I see it all the time in my large collection in which certain females have been isolated for 10-15 years (or since birth)or have no conspecific male present.

Thank you for your response.
Do you know if turtles talk to eachother? My sliders will sit on the rocks and make croking noises back and forth. Have you heard of this before?

Turtles have no outer ears and are functionaly deaf, although they may detect certain frequencies and vibrations. They do not communicate by sound, however, just by their elaborate coutship patterns.