Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not one but two of our girls were digging by about 7 pm last night.
Funny thing was, one got a head start, and the second one came along and parked herself about 8 inches away from the first: right in front of her! We have a large enclosure, too.
4 eggs each, incubating as I write this.
Stephanie

thats great, if you're really lucky they'll give you a 2nd clutch, how many more gravid females do you have?
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My Site
1.2.1 Terrapene Carolina Triunguis
0.1 Nymphicus hollandicus
1.1 Melopsittacus undulatus
1.0 American Cocker Spaniels
1.0 American Short Hair? Cat
1.1 Rouen Ducks

Rouen,
I have three more adult females (5 total) that all mated this spring: I don't palpate all of them because they really resist strenuously, and I need my fingers .
The one who started digging first last night has (historically) produced a second clutch each year that we've had her. Another layed two clutches of four eggs one year, one clutch of six the next.

Stephanie

well steph I'm jealous it's looking like I wont have any eggs again this year one of my girls keeps mounting my male and refuses to be mounted and the other has mated several times now but I think he's just not doing it right, maybe next year for me, good luck with incubating all them eggs!
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My Site
1.2.1 Terrapene Carolina Triunguis
0.1 Nymphicus hollandicus
1.1 Melopsittacus undulatus
1.0 American Cocker Spaniels
1.0 American Short Hair? Cat
1.1 Rouen Ducks

Congrats Steph!
What do you do with the babies? Do you keep them all?
Since we unexpectedly took in a male & a female wild box, without our pen being usable just now, we uh... er... knew it was gonna happen lol. I've caught the 2 of them in the act more than once in the last week.
We're thinking about possibly driving hatchlings out into the middle of no where to let them go because they were meant to be wild, they should be wild. We never intended to breed any, we never intended to keep any that weren't special needs as our girls Shell E & Charity are.
Hobo will NEVER meet Shell E or Charity, those girls will never breed. Charity is a bit pyramided & we've only had her for about a year, she's not healthy enough to meet a boy.
Shell E was broken when we took her in 5 years ago, she's spoiled rotten & doesn't want to live outside.
What to do, what to do with babies that may arrive?

PHRatz

I 'headstart' the babies before releasing them, so I keep them for a couple of years. I am constantly expanding my network of acquaintances who own fairly serious acreage where I can release them, or, in one case, I work with a park official.
I had removed the adults from a construction site before they met with sure death-by-bulldozer: 62 acres of great turtle habitat, now a shopping center. Turns my stomach everytime I go by the place: I basically boycott the businesses that moved in there.
We opted not to chance relocating the adults after reading about their home range/'site fidelity': because we live in a temperate climate, overwintering safely was of great concern to us. So, we built the biggest turtle enclosure we could at the time, and have plans for expansion this summer (I hope).
Since we both found the idea of getting involved in the pet trade to be repugnant, we determined not to sell the hatchlings.
Just trying to do our small part.
Stephanie

I'd like to add this: when we rescued the adults, an entire 'pocket' habitat was obliterated: the 62 acres was bounded by a highway along one edge, a 4 lane thoroughfare one another, dense residential on a third, and a railroad on the last side (with even more property slated for development beyond that). Most of the 62 acres was, literally, levelled. What was left did not have enough features to sustain any turtles: the trees were cut down, the berry patch was gone, the stream was piped and buried.
We had done alot of research and reading before we got started, so we had some inkling as to what we were getting ourselves into before we started. We were quite willing to make the commitment. We felt this was an opportunity to truly rescue some creatures that would not otherwise be able to get themselves out of harms way. It was not a case of turtle crossing a road in an area that had been developed long ago, and where turtles were surviving nicely.
Stephanie

Stephanie

Steph,
Thank you so much for the explanation & for helping those turtles. I didn't mention this about the turtle we named Janie that we picked up but then she didn't take the opportunity to leave. She was on the highway right in front of a brand new housing development. It's an area where million dollar gigantic homes are being built, & they are taking up a LOT of land.
That is another reason why we didn't want to leave her near that highway. She was very near a fire station, a church, a storage facility, & a cemetary too.
Our thinking is if we wind up with babies, we are going to want to take them some place where they can be wild. There is no way any hatchlings that may hatch on our property are going to be pets for us or anyone else. They're meant to be wild we'll find a way to make sure that they will be wild.
We did find a place out in the country to release the rattlesnake that bit our dog in 2001, maybe we can find a suitable area for turtles near there but frankly it's a little too close to a highway as well. We did not kill the snake that put our dog in the hospital, we caught it & let it go. (most people we tell that story to think we're crazy)

PHRatz