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As guilty as I felt about taking her off the highway & bringing her home, I've stopped feeling that way. After all she could've left this yard in the first 4 days she was here but she didn't leave.
We believe now that there is no way she was a totally wild turtle, she's been someone's pet. I have never seen a wild turtle behave the way she does.
My first clue was that she charges at me when she's hungry, she'll wait at the door & watch for me when she knows I've gone inside to get her food. At first I thought ahh she's a wild turtle, it's a food response, she's just smart.
My husband saw her charge at me, follow me around & then watch the door when I went inside for the first time about a week ago & just laughed his head off.
One day this week she'd already been fed & wasn't hungry when a neighbor woman came to the gate to talk to me. The gates are the only places where the turtles can see outside. Janie saw this stranger then came strolling up to the gate to sniff the woman's feet. No fear whatsoever, she's a character!
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PHRatz

She sounds like a real character. That's exactly why I do not believe in releasing long term hatchlings or even long term adults into the wild. They really don't know any better. They associate food with large creatures. She could be walking into a large hungry animal & be a meal herself. It's best if a boxie is released WITHOUT ever being fed by people. They need the "basic fear/shyness" of large animals to survive "better". It's better to be safe by avoiding larger animals than be sorry by becoming a meal. But she really sounds like a great pet. Good luck! Wish she would wander my way.

What you just said Turtle88 make a lot of sense to me & that's why we've already discussed looking for a place that's really out in the country right now instead of waiting. If Janie were to lay eggs any hatchlings could easily walk right out of here, we don't want them walking into the mouth of a dog so we would want to gather them up & get them out of here ASAP.

So let me ask a question of any & all of you who have egg laying females. Do they become secretive when they are ready to deposit eggs in the ground? Do they try to hide from you?
Janie is so social yet in the last 3 days she's been hiding somewhere, she's not been out charging after me for food. She did that for like 3 weeks then suddenly she's being secretive. She's still here, I'm still seeing her but not as often.
I wonder is she looking for a nesting ground because she'd mated before she got here or could she be estivating because it's been on the average around 104 degrees here for the last week with no breeze. It feels like an oven outside & it's so hot even in the shade it's unbearable to me.
I assume it's got to be one or the other...
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PHRatz

At those temperatures, I would guess that estivation is the more likely motive.
I don't know if ornates are dramatically different from easterns in this regard, but when the here females are preparing to nest, they drink copious amounts of water, and are more active than usual, and are more active later into the evening.
The literature I have would indicate that ornates would behave similarly.
Stephanie

I've had unmated females for years so I had no idea what they behave like when it's breeding/egg laying season.
I'm leaning toward the idea that her being MIA is the result of high temperatures because yesterday it cooled down & when I went outside in the evening, here she came from out of nowhere charging at me for food. Then last night we tied the 1964 record for low temperatures, it was 63. She's acting like herself again so it just had to be the temps.
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PHRatz

I find them being totally unsocial. They don't want to be bothered by anything. They don't eat. They just move around, avoiding everything. - It really seems that they are hunting for the right place to lay. What I find amazing is that most of the females lay eggs in a different area of the enclosure each year - yet, they all chose the same area. I find that really fascinating. If I was to dig an area of let's say 3 - 4 feet from where I got the first clutch, It's safe to say that I have 9 out of 10 clutches are in that area and very few anywhere else. I also know that they all lay their clutches within 2 weeks of each other. I know that next year, it will be in a different part of the pen but the time will be virtually identical. Why??? I Don't know and haven't figured it out.

Turtle that IS really interesting about them laying eggs in the same general area every year.
I'm going to keep a very close eye on Janie to see if she behaves strangly in the future.
I just wish my pen was rebuilt, I hate not having it so that I can keep an even closer watch on them. Now that we are getting to the point when we have the time to build it, it's too darn hot out there.
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PHRatz

Not sure if I read your reply correctly or you read my reply correctly. - Most of the females lay in the same area of the pen in the same year - But that area was different from the prior year.
Let's say last year, they all laid their eggs on the "left center side" of the pen. This year, most of them laid eggs on the "far right side" of them pen. Next year, who knows where they will decide to bunch up in a certain spot to lay eggs. I find they do that year after year. Maybe they all "sense" the right place to lay for that particular year. I could never predict what area though. I remember several years ago, I had found about 5 different clutches along the fence in under 4 feet. Every 8 or 9 inches there was a clutch making a straight line. I think it's so cool.

Turtle I did get what you were saying. They lay eggs in the same general area but each year that general area changes.
That's odd but very interesting.
I wonder what makes them do that?

My pet rats for example, they are very much "monkey see, monkey do" animals. If one does something new they all do it, but I didn't realize turtles would lay eggs that way, if one does it in one area they all choose the same area. It is fascinating!
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PHRatz

Now I've discovered that Janie has moved under the house. There is one little spot cut out for a pipe to go under the house & it's just big enough for her to walk through. That's where she's been hiding out all the time. She came out the other day when it rained, I saw her go back in.
Now she's using the bottom step for the back porch as her morning basking rock.
She's so adorable.
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PHRatz

Yesterday when I fed the outside turtles I hadn't seen them in a couple of days because I've been busy. I knew Janie would be hungry because Hobo was. After I fed him I made a puddle then brought Shell E & Charity outside for an evening meal, bath, & walk. Before I did that I knocked on the wall of the house by the spot where Janie goes under it, called her name & told her it's time to eat.
She didn't come out (I didn't expect her to) so I fed the other girls the dusted bugs I was carrying in a jar. When I finished with them I got stuff together to clean the tortoise mansion, I had to put it down because there was Janie. She seems to have heard me & she was ready to eat. I really did not expect any response from knocking on the wall & calling her name. I just did that for the heck of it, I was really shocked to see her.
Animals just amaze me every day of my life!
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PHRatz