Red Ear Sliders

[coledoug1]

I was holding my turtle yesterday and I saw this at the back of her. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Are you talking about the tail? I don't see anything else. Nice pretty skin BTW...That's a pretty long tail, could it be a male?

 

[Yvonne G]

At first I thought you meant the flare of the carapace, then I thought maybe the white color at the rear of the carapace. Then I thought, no, that's just light reflection. You really need to help us a bit more than just "this".

 

[coledoug1]

On the back she has 2 bumps that almost looks like eggs. Is this common?

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't think that is anything...except maybe her hip bones. You would feel eggs in front of the back legs.

 

[coledoug1]

I am going to try to make myself a little clearer. We have four red ear slider turtles in our four thousand gallon pond. They were outside all winter and now are starting to move around a lot. We picked one up yesterday and noticed 2 large bulges on ethier side of its tail. How would we know if she is pregnant or not? Our pond has 2 bogs that are in water. What do you think and what should we do? Thank you very much for your time.

 

[ascott]

Does the turtle have room to dig and lay eggs? What is the outdoor temp and does the turtle have access to a basking area...has this particular turtle laid eggs before? I mean, the turtle seems kinda small (from the picture) to be laying eggs?? Did the pond ever freeze over for winter? Did the turtles truly hibernate?

 

[coledoug1]

Thank you for ur help. We have four red ear sliders. All about 3-4 inches in length from shell to shell. No it hasn't laid eggs before. We have one area where they can lay eggs but we have 4 Russian tortoises in that area and it's only approximately 4 inches deep of soil there. Yes they can bask all they want and they do often. Yes the pond which is 4 feet deep did freeze over this winter but I did keep a small hole in it for gas exchange. We live in PA and it's 60 during the day but still dropping to 40-45 at night occasionally.

 

[Yvonne G]

I took in a rescue RES yesterday and looked at the area you are concerned about. I'm fairly certain what you are seeing is a normal part of a turtle's anatomy. I've always assumed it was what would be 'elbows.' This rescue has those bumps there too. When you press on them it feels like bone.

 

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Yes thats normal, it basically its hip bones your seeing.