>>Thanks for the good advice. My painted is an eastern and yours looks like a western. I've heard turtles from the northeast(U.S) need to hibernate in order to breed. Have you heard that? Anyone?

The thing is most people who do breed say that they get better results if the turtles have had a resting time.. hibernated. Apparently they lay more fertile eggs if they've had that time out.
I don't breed my boy so I've never worried about it.
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PHRatz