Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Curtis,was wondering if you plan on putting a land area in your spotted enclosure? I was thinking of maybe making a plexi box (tight fit inside the tank)with a sand and soil mix,maybe a plant or 2.I dont think my bigger female is gravid,but maybe give her the land just incase.Wish there was a way to tell for sure,except for x-rays

Ken Sopher has said on this forum before "If you have small fingers, you can try to insert your pinkie into the area just anterior to her hind leg and tilt her to the side that you are palpating. In the latter stages of development, you may feel eggs.

Constant basking, restless behavior, and a very short period of coming off of feed is sometimes indicative of a gravid turtle."

And, yes, I definitely plan on making a land area in my spotted enclosure. ACTUALLY, you could visit captivebredpythons.com and click on Spotted Turtles, and there are a few pics of this breeder's spotted tank, and that's exactly how I want to do mine.

I'm thinking a section of sand and a section of soil/peat moss to give choices to future gravid turtles.

Hey, Dan. Have you found or taking any pics of those wild spotteds laying in your yard yet?

Very cool. That gives me somthing to do today. My wife says she has some pics on a memory stick, but she gave the camera to my oldest.I'll have her grab it an down load them.I have a cpl pics of babies in the sandbox on here somewhere.They where the size of a bottle cap.

Can't wait to see them.

I like your idea of building a plexiglass box to hold the land area. I've been trying to think of how I'm going to keep the land area from falling into the water and that just might do it. Where do you buy your plexiglass from? I checked out Home Depot and it was kinda expensive.

I got lucky and scored a few 4x8 sheets of 1/2thick plexi from work.Cuts ez with a skill saw to.Where are ya located? I'll give ya some.Or give me some measurements and I'll make a box for ya. I like the box Idea for cleaning purposes , would be so much easier to just pull it out then try'n to clean inside the tank.

I would love for you to make me one, but I live in Dallas. Yeah, I think that's the way to go, and then you can just cover it up with rocks and logs and such and you'll never see unless you want to.

dude,you really don't need to make a box.i got a a free scrap from ace hardware-if you ask if they have any scrap or broken plexi,they'll usually just give it to you;they usually have bits and pieces in the back,taking up space-and cut it to fit.all you have to do is score it less than 1/4 of the way through,put it on the edge of a table(line up the edge with the score mark),and just press down hard,it'll snap clean right on the score.
anyway,my pair is in a 55 right now,so i cut the piece to fit snug side to side,and about a foot long,so 12x12 or so.then i used aquarium grade silicone to set it at a 45 degree angle(it helps to put a brick or something behind the plexi for it to lean against).after it cured(24 hrs or so),i put a mix of organic potting soil and sand up to about an 1 1/2" from the lip of the plexi,and put a thin layer of gravel over the dirt(trial and error-if you don't use the gravel,you'll have a butt-load of dirt in the water.the inch of lip overhang cuts down ondirt transfer,too).i
i also put horizontal "stripes" of silicone side to side,to give my buddies traction to get out(again,trial and error.turtles just don't get much grip on plexi).
i've done this 4 or 5 times,with all different size tanks.i use a ratio of 1/3 land,2/3 water.with the angle that it's set at,the water depth is roughly 7" or so.plus,the whenever she does lay,she can scrape right through the gravel,into the soil underneath.hope this helps!
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1.1 cb spotted turtles (parker(f),stinky(m))
0.0.1 cb baby red cheek mud (pickles)
0.0.1 cb baby chiapas musk (chomper)
0.0.3 wc baby stinkpots (inky,blinky,&dot)
1.1 wc eastern mud turtles (george & jane)
1.0 cb eastern painted turtle (fred)
0.0.1 mississippi map (lil' dummy)
0.0.1 cb ally snapper (gamera)
0.0.2 red-eared sliders(kaelan's classroom pets,summer babysitting)
1.0 cb06 albino corn (rusty)
0.0.1 cb07 apalachicola kingsnake
0.0.1 wc halloween crab
0.1 irritating cat (sassy )
2.0 cb children (sidney,13 & kaelan,5)
0.1 wc wife (danae,age withheld due to fears for personal safety)

"my name is inigo montoya...you killed my father.prepare to die."

forgot to say that i used 1/2" plexi.my bad.and yes,i'm still working on posting pics(my wife's b-day is in 2 weeks,and she's getting a digi camera,she just doesn't know yet).
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1.1 cb spotted turtles (parker(f),stinky(m))
0.0.1 cb baby red cheek mud (pickles)
0.0.1 cb baby chiapas musk (chomper)
0.0.3 wc baby stinkpots (inky,blinky,&dot)
1.1 wc eastern mud turtles (george & jane)
1.0 cb eastern painted turtle (fred)
0.0.1 mississippi map (lil' dummy)
0.0.1 cb ally snapper (gamera)
0.0.2 red-eared sliders(kaelan's classroom pets,summer babysitting)
1.0 cb06 albino corn (rusty)
0.0.1 cb07 apalachicola kingsnake
0.0.1 wc halloween crab
0.1 irritating cat (sassy )
2.0 cb children (sidney,13 & kaelan,5)
0.1 wc wife (danae,age withheld due to fears for personal safety)

"my name is inigo montoya...you killed my father.prepare to die."

Hey man, I was thinking of doing that,then started thinking about the dreaded time to clean out the whole tank time comes it would be a pain in the ass.But if I have to carry it out to wash it I guess it really wouldn't be.So if I go that route,I'll have to drain the tank (again)and find a kid pool for the spotties for a day or 2 ,np there.Figure a day to let the silicone set before I put them back in?Wish I wasn't laid off rite now,some killer deals on 125gal tanks on Craigslist rite now.Theres a 180 gallon w/2 xp3's,stand,lights,python cleaner and extras for $200 OBO.Sooo heating oil for winter,or new tank?..Home depot have that silicone,or gotta go to a pet store?

"Wish I wasn't laid off rite now..."

Guess we have more in common than I thought. I wondered why we were the only ones with quick responses during the day!

Yeah, the construction business sucks right now!Like to get out of it all together but it's all I've done for almost 20yrs. Love to open a reptile store, there really isn't any good 1's around here.

Sorry to hear about that.

All my plans hinge on building a deck first. You should come down and help me, Dan. Deck estimates are crazy high so I think I'll have to execute my first deck on my own. I have all this time on my hands anyway.

B/F you and megalon brought up plexiglass, cause I don't think it would hold on the inside of my stock tank, this is what I had in mind.

I would build kind of a beach on 1/3 of the tank by stacking up some large rocks/boulders as a border and then stack up from there smaller rocks, large gravel, then pea gravel, and then sand inside. For soil, I was thinking of burying in one corner a small ziploc plastic container filled with soil and peat moss, topped with some pea gravel. I guess it will all be trial and error, so I better get cracking on this deck.

Curtis I'ld love to help ya,hell of a commute tho.Decks around here are going for $15 a sq foot. I just did 2 decks for a friend that where 16ft x10..done in 2 days,and all for a big fat thankyou..(working for friends sucks). I'ld think in a stock tank it would take some thinking. I like the border of rocks idea,then maybe a liner,like for outdoor ponds.That way ya get no bleed thru of finer dirt particles running into your water. Metal stock tank,maybe have someone weld in a *divider*,that way you could shape it to, like the shape of an *S*or somthing.

$15 a square foot! I shouldn't complain. I've been getting quotes of about $10.80 a sq. foot.