Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Back around June 16th, this year, I posted a picture of a female boxie that was hit by a car I found. Other than a few cracks around her hinge and some shell flaking on the underneath side, her injuries appeared to be internal as she was spitting up blood. I soaked her in some antiseptic that a vet recommended and hoped for the best. Well the best came, it was slow as she finally came around to eating, worms, berries, bananas, and corn on the cob. I’ve soaked her every few days and kept a close eye on her.

The night before last I found an egg in the garden, not buried but laying on the ground under a cabbage leaf. The egg was flat on the bottom and collapsed later in the evening. Just 1 egg. Two nights later she laid another egg in the house where she has a pen. That egg looks like she stepped on it.

My question is was she egg bound? As she was found/injured the first week of June about egg laying time here in NE Ohio. The last egg was about 2 days ago, is there a chance she still has more inside? Otherwise she appears to be doing all right. I’m debating whether to let my males mate with her late September or October.

Need help from experienced Turtle Owners.

Named her Taylor, photo enclosed, and will keep her along with my 2 Males who are kept in separate parts of the garden for now

Thanks Alan

She may be. Would you say that she has full range of motion with both hind legs and feet? She may be having trouble digging a nest.
Also, make sure that she has plenty of water available and turn a sprinkle on in her pen if you haven't had a good rain in a while.
Only an x-ray will tell you for sure of she's still carrying eggs.

I just noticed the other day how quick she can move across the garden, she shares the garden area with an Ornate female and they seem to get along real well. The garden is watered regularly and both turtles dig in under some big cabbage leafs.
I have several half pipes, about a 16 inches long, scattered around the garden and the turtles rest in those also. The very first egg was in one of the half pipes just laying on the ground.
If she were to dig a hole would it be good size and would I notice it?

Thanks for the responce

Alan

They can be very clever at camouflaging a nest once the process is completed.

There are a couple of things that you can do: you can watch her every afternoon to see if you can catch her in the act of nesting. You can also weigh her daily; if she drops a noteworthy amount of weight from one day to the next, that may be an indication that she's laid eggs somewhere. You'll need a fairly accurate scale for that, but any electronic kitchen scale would work.

Thank you, I'll try that as I have a pretty accurate set of scales, plus look for digging signs.

Alan

will keep posted if anything happens

I've had success feeling for eggs in my females. This is done by inserting a finger just in front of a hind leg and gently feeling inside the shell. Hold her leg out with your other fingers to keep her shell from closing. Once you get the hang of it you can check both sides at the same time. If you feel anything hard and smooth like a marble, that's eggs. However, if you feel nothing there could still be an egg or two out of reach so it's not definite. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Jaime

2.6 ball pythons
1.1 corn snakes
1.4.15 eastern box turtles
0.1 bearded dragon
2.1 spotted turtles

It's certainly worth a try. It's important to be gentle.
Palpating can be a challenge: it depends on the turtle. Also it may not tell you anything if there are only one or two eggs present. I have females that clamp down hard if I try to palpate them, and I can't always feel eggs present if the turtle is carrying a very small quantity.

A day after we had her my wife checked for eggs just as you described, as soon as my wife touched inside her leg blood started flowing like a river I grabbed some paper towels and stuffed them around her. As my wife held her with the paper towels wrapped tightly she, turtle, opened her mouth and blood started coming out. My heart dropped as I thought she was going to die. Well everything stopped after a few minutes, seemed a lifetime, and my wife just held her for over an hour or so. Put her down in a large plastic container with towels for the night and the next day soaked her in sodium chloride mixture a vet recommended. We kept her in a few days and put her in the garden isolated from other turtles. It was about 2 weeks later she ate some black raspberries and from there it was a steady progression of eating walking around and getting better. She Taylor, wife named, now eats, worms, berries and loves corn on thecob.
Taylor has part of her front foot missing, has healed nicely and she seems to be back to normal and then she lays 2 eggs!. That is why my original question was maybe she was egg bound. At any rate all seem ok now will keep posted.

Thanks Alan

Poor thing!

Strictly speaking, if she able to lay eggs (even on the ground) she isn't egg bound. It sounds to me that she may be having difficulty digging or hasn't found what she deems to be a suitable nesting spot.

While it's not an ideal situation, the fact that she is laying eggs is a good sign.