It's really difficult to say. It seems like the turtle isn't so much having difficulty with the egg laying part of the equation, but that there is some kind of difficulty with the nest digging part of the process.



A good nesting site will be free of obstructions to digging, such as roots or larger rocks. Digging typically takes place when the soil is somewhat moist, after a rain perhaps, which allows for easier digging.



It may be that the turtle does not have access to a suitable (by her standards) nesting site, or, she may not have full range of motion with her rear legs and is physically unable to dig a proper nest.



I have a female here that laid eggs for the very first time this summer. She is an amputee, with a missing (from the knee down) hind leg, so I monitored her constantly.



Unfortunately, when she dug her nest, she encountered roots and gave up the effort. This happened several times over the course of a couple of weeks. She was finally able to dig a (mostly) complete nest, but it took her all night and she walked away from it in the morning without laying eggs. After many attempts at digging, she finally just laid eggs on the soil surface, but sheltered by a log.



When she did this I was relieved to know that she had at least gotten the eggs out. Hopefully next year she'll have more success with her nesting endeavors.

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