I can give a personal observation of a situation involving a turtle. This past Spring we had a female slider which had somehow contrived to avoid any males and developed an infertile clutch. She had great difficulty passing these eggs, and we had to eventually resort to a dose of oxytocin. Even then it took her several days to expel the last one.

If you are interested in reading about this phenomena in other reptiles I can provide several references. Sitting here on my desk at the moment is the AVS book "Care and Breeding of Jackson's, Veiled, and Parson's Chameleons. The problem of retained infertile eggs is mentioned in two different articles by two different Authors (Ron Tremper and John Annis)in this book alone.

I'll be speaking with Ron Tremper (who is certainly one of the most experienced chelonian breeders in this country) in the next few days, and I'll ask his opinion. I'll post his response here.
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

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