Pregnant turtle?

[cortezknight]

I have noticed in the past few days that my mud turtle has been acting different. She has dug a hole beside the rocks in my tank as shown in picture 1 and she seems to sit on top of their log alot more than usual where my male mud turtle is shown in picture 2.

Could she be pregnant? I made a little nesting box for her to stay in just incase.

If she lays any eggs are there any tips I should know on caring for the eggs?

 

[cortezknight]

Also she is roughly 4 years of age

 

[Yvonne G]

Has she ever been with a male turtle? If no, then don't worry about the eggs as they're not fertile. If yes, then you can either leave them in the hole (if it's warm there) or artificially incubate them at about 85F degrees. Once you've set them up, don't change their orientation. Takes about 3 months to hatch.

 

[Markw84]

This would be a very odd time of year for a turtle to develop eggs. They normally would lay from May through late June. I would think your turlte is more interested in Brumating (hibernating). How are the lights on your tank set? Photoperiod? Light from a nearby window? Where do you live as that would make a difference? UVA exposure? Is the tank heated? Room temps effect even a heated tank when they start dropping more at night in the fall.

As a side note... Aquatic turtle eggs normally take 2 months to hatch. But I would be surprised if it is egg laying activity.

 

[cortezknight]

Has she ever been with a male turtle? If no, then don't worry about the eggs as they're not fertile. If yes, then you can either leave them in the hole (if it's warm there) or artificially incubate them at about 85F degrees. Once you've set them up, don't change their orientation. Takes about 3 months to hatch.

Yes she is in the tank with a male and another female.

 

[cortezknight]

This would be a very odd time of year for a turtle to develop eggs. They normally would lay from May through late June. I would think your turlte is more interested in Brumating (hibernating). How are the lights on your tank set? Photoperiod? Light from a nearby window? Where do you live as that would make a difference? UVA exposure? Is the tank heated? Room temps effect even a heated tank when they start dropping more at night in the fall.

As a side note... Aquatic turtle eggs normally take 2 months to hatch. But I would be surprised if it is egg laying activity.

I turn on their lights around 11 am till around 10:30 pm. They don’t receive light from a window and I live in eastern North Carolina and no the tank is not heated.

 

[Markw84]

IN your latitude, you are loosing 15 minutes of daylight every week this time of year, and have been for the past month or so. Your turtles would see this as the coming of winter and time to slow down. You may not turn on their lights until 11 AM but I doubt the room is totally dark. There is ambient light that has changed with the season. I believe turtles use photoperiod, intesity of light, and color of light as the most important cue to their annual rhythms.

I would always keep turtles in a tank / enclosure where the photoperiod is controlled by a timer. Their lives are governed by light. With temperate aquatics, if I am not brumating them, I like to keep a 14-15 hour photoperiod.

Without a heater in the tank, the water temp is probably cooler now than it was a month ago as well.