Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How often do Box Turtles mate?
Will a male go after a female all the time?
Is there a time of the year?
Will males ignore females?
A lot of sites talk about courting and sexing, with more emphasis on the actual act of mating rather than dealing with specific times or sequence of events.
The reason I ask I found two Box Turtles a male and a female I think. The male attacked my male and I took him back to where I found him.
The female I found in a flooded out area and have decided to keep her, as I’m not sure about her home area.
She is adapting well and accepting a large pen with another male.
They seem to hang out together all right
That’s why I was asking those questions.
Thank you very much
NorristheNut

I can tell you what I've observed with my group:
The males will try to mate at any time, except during the hottest part of the summer, when they will pretty much ignore the females (and eachother).
The females are more selective about who they mate with, and may spurn certain males for weeks at a time, and then welcome the advances of another.
I have not witnessed any female in my group mate more than twice in one season (Mar.-Sept.). That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I just haven't seen it. That doesn't mean the males stop trying though, either.
The males here have been pretty good (so far) about not fighting between themselves, so there have not been any major injuries.
I do have a rather large, densely planted enclosure
with various log piles etc., so everyone can stay out of each others way, which helps alot: they can avoid each other pretty easily.
Stephanie

wow Steph you said nothing about quarentine! I'm shocked!

heres what I've witnessed with my tiny group

my male mounts whenever he feels like it and the females if they dont want to mate will clunk around and often make him lose his balance withtin 30 minutes it's usually over with, the big mating time is obviously spring, summer as steph said is a bit of a cool down period but they may still mate in the cooler hours, usually in fall they will become active again untill it really starts to cool down, but being so late in the year it's highly doubtful there will be any eggs, as I'm sure you know they dont just mate to reproduce.

anyway, I have to say what you did was a major no - no, you introduced an adult WC male to a captive male, captive animals carry bacteria that can kill wild individuals/populations, having them together without letting the newly aquired animals acclimate in quarentine is a serious thing, as is taking adults from what could have been perfect habitat and unless there were roads running straight through it or housing construction near by it probly was perfect for them, I'm not sure of what species/subspecies you've got but as far as I know it's illegal to capture then release a box turtle - anywhere you might have been trying to do what you thought was good but it's really far from being good, if you want to breed there are adults in the pet trade already taking a reproducing adult from the wild is not something that should be condoned.
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My Site
1.2.1 Terrapene Carolina Triunguis
0.0.1 Nymphicus hollandicus
1.0 Melopsittacus undulatus
1.1 American Cocker Spaniels
1.0 American Short Hair? Cat
1.1 Rouen Ducks

Shame on me ! The fact is, I don't give quarantine alot of thought, in part because my own group had all been rescued from the same construction site and so, had already had contact with eachother.
I did visit another turtle keeper recently, though, who lost 1/2 her colony to disease shortly after introducing a new turtle this spring, and 1/2 of those remaining were sick. She may well lose all of them.
You can bet I washed and disinfected my hands when I got home from that visit! All the clothing went in the wash immediately, too.
Stephanie

Thank you for the responses, the bottom line is I have two Box Turtles
Living in my garden eating tomatoes berries and worms, and laying in the sun.
The garden has logs, tunnels and leaves I might mention.
I’m sure I’ll post more messages and will try and post their pictures soon.
I live in Ohio up near Lake Erie so my turtles are getting ready to hibernate.

Thank you very much
NorristheNut