How Long Until My Female Turtle Lays Eggs? How Will I know When She Is Ready?
It can be
days or even weeks after mating, until the female lays her eggs. You should watch for signs that the female
is ready to lay eggs. She will usually
start basking under the UV lights a lot more.
Acting very restless. Frantically
trying to get out of the tank (she wants to go look for a nesting area). Making strange grunting or sputtering
noises. Digging with her front and back
feet.
You can also
check your female to see if she has eggs.
To do this, gently feel in the area between her top and bottom shell,
above her back legs. If you feel round
bumps in there, she probably has eggs.
One good way to know the difference is to try it on your male first, to
see what “no eggs” feels like. Then try it on the female, and if it feels like
she has round lumps in there while he does not—then the female probably does
have eggs in there.
How often Do female Turtles Lay Eggs, And How Many?
The female
may accidentally lay an egg in the water.
If this happens, put her in a nesting area. Eggs laid in the water will usually die, but
you can try to incubate it as soon as possible.
Try not to turn or rotate the egg when you pick it up (this can kill the
embryo), keep it as level as possible.
Incubation takes
55 to 60 days for most average-sized aquatic breeds.
A female
turtle can lay 2 to 30 eggs, depending on body size and other factors. A “clutch” is the group of eggs that she
lays. She can lay up to 5 clutches in
one year, 12 to 36 days apart.
Keep in mind
though, females will lay eggs even if they have never met a male. And even if they have mated, not all eggs
will be fertile.
Fertilizing Eggs
Females can
store male sperm for weeks, months, even 2 to 3 years after mating, and use it
to fertilize their eggs. The actual
fertilizing takes place when the eggs are being laid. If the female has mated, and the eggs are
covered in a slimy substance, there is a good chance they were fertilized.
Incubating
Eggs
Before you
do the below steps, you will want to have your incubator set up and ready. Here is a video on how you can make your own,
and it also has a shot of an incubator you can purchase from a store:
You will
also want to have some plastic containers ready to put the eggs in. The containers should be filled with a very
light, moistened potting soil mixed with vermiculite. Keep these close by.
You will
probably need to dig up the eggs after they are laid, so you can transfer them
to your containers and put them in the incubator. But you must do this very gently, gradually
moving the nesting box dirt away with your hands until you find the eggs. Clear the dirt away from each egg carefully,
without moving them or breaking them.
Mark the tops of the eggs with an X using a felt pen and being sure not
to rotate them at all, during moving.
In your egg containers, make small dents in
the soil to place each egg in. The
bottom half of the egg should be covered in the soil. The top half of the egg should be showing. Here is a video demonstrating this:
Now you should place your
egg container inside your egg incubator.
Incubator Temperatures
And Humidity:
What temperature
you keep the eggs at really depends on what gender you want. Some people like to keep one incubator for
female eggs, and one for male eggs.
87.8 degrees F (31 c) –Female
Somewhere in between can produce
equal amounts of both. But many people
like to separate them, so they will know which gender is which from birth. Otherwise, you won’t be able to determine
their gender until their shells are 4 inches long…
In the wild, clutches of eggs laid in
cooler weather will usually turn out to be all male. Clutches laid in warmer weather will be all
female. And clutches laid in neutral
weather can be 50/50.
In your home
made incubator, you will probably have the eggs resting on a platform, above a
few inches of water, with an aquarium water heater under the water. Keeping the water heater set to 78 to 83 degrees
F, will also maintain a humidity level of 75 to 85 %( Midland eggs are leathery
and will dent or collapse and die if relative humidity is not maintained at 80%
or better.).
The eggs should hatch between 50 to 60 days.
How To Tell If Turtle Eggs Are Fertile
There is a stronger chance of fertile eggs if they are covered in a
slimy substance when they are laid. But
there are also other ways to tell after they have been laid— you will see a
white ring (whiter than most of the shell) forming around the middle of the
egg. This is called “banding” because
its like a band around the middle. Eventually,
that whiter color will spread all over the whole egg. This is a good sign that the eggs are fertile.
Some people also “candle” their eggs ( gently picking one up without
rotating or cracking it, and holding it over a candle or flashlight to look for
veins or masses growing inside). But
this method is not really advisable, because there is too much risk of killing
the baby, or cracking the egg, while moving it…
For information on what to do with baby turtles after they have hatched,
please see my post on “Caring For Baby Turtles / Hatchlings”.
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