I had a snapper lay eggs in my yard in a somewhat unusual manner. I saw this turtle walking around in my back yard during a rain storm (I live right next to a deep drainage ditch) and thought it was most likely looking for a place to lay.
After the rain ended, I went out and quickly found a fairly large disturbed area (about 12" to 15" square) with a couple of visible depressions from the rainwater's impact. I moved just the very top layer of soil (maybe an inch at the most) and saw an egg so I got a bucket to escavate the nest. Well, there was only the one egg in the first depression and the same in the other -- both were just barely below the surface. I assume this must have been the "decoy" nest but, based on the size of the disturbed area, thought that the main nest would have been in the same spot.
As an FYI -- this is the first nest I've "saved" in my yard as, in the past, I've just found the remains after the racoons have dug them up so I'm hoping I at least can give these two little guys a safe start!
Anyway, I would like to know if I can just hatch these two eggs in a bucket of soil from my yard or if I should put them in a vermiculite nesting mixture in a standard plastic container (I've hatched a lot of snake eggs this way and it is basically a 100% success ratio for them but I don't know if snapper eggs have different needs). I do know not to turn these eggs.
Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated -- also, I am in southwest Florida so the temperature here is still in the 80's during the day and then usually 60's at night.
Thanks,
Tim
