Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Another one of our girls dug a nest last night: this morning I saw that she had maneuvered a small rock over the top of it. When I was digging to remove the eggs, I found that one of the eggs was only about 3/8 inch beneath the soil surface: thats when I began to suspect something was going to be unusual with this nest.
HA! She'd literally filled it to the brim with 9 eggs! The largest clutch we've had with any of ours has been 6, so this really amazing.
Stephanie

I'm beginning to get very jealous of you. But all is good. Good luck & hope you get a 100% hatch!

How come people dig up the eggs their turtles lay? Do more make it this way? How many boxies do you have? What do you do with the hatchlings?

Safety is a primary concern, both from predators and other nesting females.
I 'headstart' the hatchlings for later release. I'm not interested in getting involved in the pet trade.
Stephanie

NINE EGGS?!? Wow that's impressive. Your turtle must be awfully healthy out there.
Congrats!
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PHRatz

Thanks!
Funny thing is, she's not a particularly large female, usually weighing in under 500g (I'd weighed her while she was gravid: 504g). I checked my records from last year, and she had produced 2 clutches, 1st was 6 eggs, 2nd was 5 eggs, but none of the second clutch were fertile. I had not observed her mating last year, either, until the fall.
She did mate last fall and this spring, though, so I'll be interested to see if there's a second clutch with fertile eggs this time around.
Historically, fertility rates diminish with second clutches, at least with our bunch.
Stephanie