Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering if female turtles lay eggs even if they haven't mated(kind of like a chicken still produces infertile egs).

COuld you jsut tell me more about females and laying eggs. I'm curious because i have a female three toed and wonder if she will ever lay eggs(infertile ones since she is the only turtle i have)

Thanks again for answering my stupid questions

Yes they will lay eggs even if not exposed to a male, and they will lay eggs if their body has enough spare energy to do so.

>>I was just wondering if female turtles lay eggs even if they haven't mated(kind of like a chicken still produces infertile egs).
>>
>>COuld you jsut tell me more about females and laying eggs. I'm curious because i have a female three toed and wonder if she will ever lay eggs(infertile ones since she is the only turtle i have)
>>
>>Thanks again for answering my stupid questions
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Greg
http://greg978.tripod.com/

So females have to be in top condition to lay eggs? Also would a turtle lay eggs when she is inside if they are kept in a tank for part of the year?

Female box turtles can lay eggs without the presence of a mate. There are two possibilities when this occurs:

1) If a mate has been present within 5 years, a female can lay fertile eggs, as they have the ability to store sperm after mating for at least this long (no cases beyond five years have been documented)

2) Without fertilization, a box turtle will still occasionally lay eggs. It is unclear what stimulates this, wether seasonal changes or variations encourage it, or what, but it can on rare occasions occur that a female will develop and lay unfertilized eggs. It is more likely to occur in animals living outdoors experiencing seasonal changes, and would happen similarly timed to animals with normal mating.

Keeping box turtles indoors is not a successful long term method without great pains (and expensive ones) being taken to mimic nature in seasons and weather in great detail. Their breeding capability also fades after several years without a hibernation cycle and to some extent without outdoor living. For best health, an outdoor pen is the easiest and healtheist way for a north american box turtle to live.

i keep my turtle is kept outside during the summer but since she still isn't 100% from being sick when i got her(last april) she spends the winter indoors. I also live in alberta,canada so it gets too cold to be hibernated outside and as far as i know she has never been hibernated(atleast for the past 15years). I have read up about hibernating indoors but it doesn't seem to be the best alternative for me. So untill she is is good enough condition she will be outdoors for half the year and indoors for the winter.

Thanks for the info about turtles laying eggs. I never knew they could store sperm for up to 5years!

-Keeping box turtles indoors is not a successful long term method without great pains (and expensive ones) being taken to mimic nature in seasons and weather in great detail. Their breeding capability also fades after several years without a hibernation cycle and to some extent without outdoor living. For best health, an outdoor pen is the easiest and healtheist way for a north american box turtle to live.

yeah, five years is pretty amazing, but that's just as far as we KNOW they can store it... who knows how long they really can?!