If I happen to answer a question on hibernation or breeding I always say I don't breed. But I did. The local Mom and Pop pet store called me a couple of months ago to ask if I wanted a male ornate box turtle...yeppers!
I have been fortunate to be able to have a small creep of Terrapine ornata ornata, all female. So this guy is faded and old looking. The store guy said his keeper had cancer and couldn't take care of his turtle any more. So after a while when he was eating and acting normal, I took him from the quarantine tank and put him in with 2 females, he bred both several times over a couple of days...So I put him back alone for a few days the put him in with 2 more female...he jumped on them right away. After a bit the Wild ornate started digging test holes...so I filled one end of the tort table with orchid bark, potting soil and sand...deep as I could...she dug that night and laid one huge egg. One damned egg. It musta hurt...so the egg is in my incubator and we will see. The other females don't act interested in nesting at all...I call her the Wild One because of her ways...she'd escaped the turtle pond and was gone for 3 days, then one day...there she was, at the bottom of the stairs and other reasons
here's him
and her
and The Egg...
I have been fortunate to be able to have a small creep of Terrapine ornata ornata, all female. So this guy is faded and old looking. The store guy said his keeper had cancer and couldn't take care of his turtle any more. So after a while when he was eating and acting normal, I took him from the quarantine tank and put him in with 2 females, he bred both several times over a couple of days...So I put him back alone for a few days the put him in with 2 more female...he jumped on them right away. After a bit the Wild ornate started digging test holes...so I filled one end of the tort table with orchid bark, potting soil and sand...deep as I could...she dug that night and laid one huge egg. One damned egg. It musta hurt...so the egg is in my incubator and we will see. The other females don't act interested in nesting at all...I call her the Wild One because of her ways...she'd escaped the turtle pond and was gone for 3 days, then one day...there she was, at the bottom of the stairs and other reasons
here's him
and her
and The Egg...
