Finally having a chance to tell this story. Which is very exciting. Lets start with the general information most breeders of diamondback terrapins go with and books of matter fact too. The general breeding facts say Male terrapins reach sexual maturity at 5 inches, females at 6.5inches.
My group just blew those general averages out of the water, just a reminder why information is general and nothing can ever be solid in nature. As far as I know these are the smallest Ive ever heard of terrapins producing eggs at. I heard of a couple at 6inches laying but I had not one but two terrapins at only 5.5inches produce eggs.
These are the two females
Now the real question is what male mated with them and that only can be Terry's male he had just sent me or mine who I call Heart and both of them are right at the 4inch range again pretty far from the normal haha.
Heart:
Terry's Male
Sadly though since this was their first time some terrapins have no idea what their doing and they just drop their eggs in the water. This they did follow the normal route with that. Every day one seemed to lay one egg at a time but whats amazing again for being small they both even managed to produce a good hefty clutch of 6 eggs each.
Though there is some good news actually. Amazingly one egg was saved from each female as both did lay one egg on land, one even completed a nest but just laid one egg and then never tried to nest normal again. Another amazing thing is again they are beating the odds of low fertility for being their first time. Both eggs have proven to be fertile! The egg from the white female, her first egg was extremely small compared to normal but its growing and im not complaining haha.
Sorry for the blurry pic, but you can see the egg is really red when you take a light too it from the growing turtle inside. Also when this is all said and done we should be able to see what male was the bread winner maybe. If they come out with large spots since neither of the females do and neither does Terry's male its a good assumption Heart was the father.
My group just blew those general averages out of the water, just a reminder why information is general and nothing can ever be solid in nature. As far as I know these are the smallest Ive ever heard of terrapins producing eggs at. I heard of a couple at 6inches laying but I had not one but two terrapins at only 5.5inches produce eggs.
These are the two females
Now the real question is what male mated with them and that only can be Terry's male he had just sent me or mine who I call Heart and both of them are right at the 4inch range again pretty far from the normal haha.
Heart:
Terry's Male
Sadly though since this was their first time some terrapins have no idea what their doing and they just drop their eggs in the water. This they did follow the normal route with that. Every day one seemed to lay one egg at a time but whats amazing again for being small they both even managed to produce a good hefty clutch of 6 eggs each.
Though there is some good news actually. Amazingly one egg was saved from each female as both did lay one egg on land, one even completed a nest but just laid one egg and then never tried to nest normal again. Another amazing thing is again they are beating the odds of low fertility for being their first time. Both eggs have proven to be fertile! The egg from the white female, her first egg was extremely small compared to normal but its growing and im not complaining haha.
Sorry for the blurry pic, but you can see the egg is really red when you take a light too it from the growing turtle inside. Also when this is all said and done we should be able to see what male was the bread winner maybe. If they come out with large spots since neither of the females do and neither does Terry's male its a good assumption Heart was the father.
