Pet Turtle Care: Turtle Breeding Do's and Don'ts

Breeding turtles, of course requires a pair of sexually mature turtles: The male turtle should be about three years old, while the female turtle should be approximately five. More importantly, make sure you are breeding only healthy turtles. You will observe that they do not eat much during mating, so you must see to it that they have already taken the proper amount of food and vitamins, such as calcium and D3. As you prepare for turtle breeding, make sure that you are ready. This is one challenging task.

Normally, turtle breeding begins in the fall. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you prepare the turtles you wish to breed by "winter cooling" them in January and February. This winter cooling process, which means keeping the turtles at a temperature between 50 to 60 °F, takes about six to eight weeks. Leave them alone during this time. After this six to eight week period, bring the temperature back up to normal. Turtle breeding is best accomplished outdoors, but if you have no choice, you can still do it inside. The key here is to provide the turtles with a nesting area, which is a box or a hole that is 12 to 16 inches deep, filled with moist soil and sand.

Check the nesting area regularly, especially on grey or rainy afternoons. This is the type of weather the turtles usually prefer to lay their eggs. The eggs should be uncovered gently and marked with a felt pen on the uppermost point of the egg before removing. Place them in an incubation container, the next step after turtle breeding.

During the incubation, the eggs must be positioned in such a way that the marks you made are facing upwards. For the incubation medium, use vermiculite mixed with water (at a ratio of 1:1 by weight). Place this in an ice cream container, covered and half-filled. This mixture of vermiculite and water should be moist (with a humidity level of approximately 90%). Make sure that the incubation medium does not become too saturated or wet, because this may cause the eggs to rot. On the other hand, without sufficient moisture, the eggs will dry up. You must carefully monitor the humidity level during this very delicate incubation period.

Place the eggs slightly buried for easy monitoring. Test the moisture content of the mixture with your fingers every third day. If you feel that it is drying out, spray two to three light mist sprays over the eggs. Control yourself! Do not be tempted to turn the eggs, and be careful when removing the cover. The 'banding up' or calcifying of the eggs will start in 24 hours, normally beginning from the center and working outwards.

Do not panic when you see 'windows' or uncalcified patches on the shells, because these may be present in viable or non-viable eggs. However, if you do notice that there are eggs with a slimy or moldy appearance, immediately take them out, because they may have mold or fungus that could easily spread to other viable eggs.

If you see eggs with cracks during the beginning stages of incubation, you can try to repair them by wiping a thin amount of silicone sealant gently over the crack. Hopefully, if done correctly, this will prevent fluid leakage, as well as stopping the egg from becoming completely desiccated prior to successful incubation.

Pet Turtle Care : Breeding Your Turtles

Pet Turtle Care

Pet turtles have become the basis of a booming pet business in the United States and a few other countries. A growing number of people are interested in having a unique and interesting pet that they do not have to devote a lot of time to caring for.

Turtles are relatively easy to care for and feed, as long as you have one of the four smaller species that are commonly seen for sale in the pet stores. The four most common types of pet turtles are the box turtle, the painted turtle, the sliders and the mud turtles. These turtles are small, are easy to contain, do not eat a lot and seem to adapt well to captivity.

Some people have taken up breeding turtles as a hobby or on a commercial basis. Breeding your turtles is certainly possible and can be a great hobby or a potentially profitable business, but there are some things that you will need to know to be successful.

For the turtle to breed, the turtle must feel safe and comfortable. To achieve this, the environment should be as close the natural wild habitat as possible. One way to accomplish this is to set up your turtle's aquarium outdoors, to expose the turtle to the natural progression of the seasons. This will cause the turtle to need to hibernate in the cold months, depending on your location, and you should take steps to prepare your tank to allow the turtle ample opportunity to burrow and hibernate when necessary.

Turtles generally come out of hibernation in late spring, around the month of May, and this is when they are likely to breed. During the breeding process, it is a good idea to watch the turtles closely as they can become overly aggressive. It is also a good idea to remove smaller turtles from contact with larger ones during this time for their own safety, especially smaller males.

After mating, the female turtle will go through a period during which the eggs are being produces. This time is analogous to a human woman's pregnancy, during which she is very tired, moody and stressed. The female turtle's body is putting a lot of resources into forming her eggs and needs to be watched very closely during this time. Once the eggs are formed and ready, the female turtle will want a secluded quiet place to burrow and lay her eggs. She will usually lay about 5 eggs, but this can vary.

You will need to arrange rocks, plants, sticks to create a number of secluded places for the turtle to feel comfortable choosing from. The turtle will need to have access to moist soil, 7 to 10 inches deep in which to burrow and lay her eggs. Once the eggs are laid and buried, you will need to make sure that the soil around them stays moist. The eggs will hatch in about 90 days. The young turtles will need to be kept indoors, in an aquarium and will need to be watched closely to make sure that all are getting plenty of food and are not being bitten by stronger siblings.

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