r/TurtleFacts Jun 22 '20

Just found this turtle in my backyard .. dug a hole and made eggs.. does this turtle need water ??

Post image
785 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

260

u/mellowman24 Jun 22 '20

If its laying eggs it's there for a reason. It knows what it's doing and where to go to get back to where it lives. Just leaving it alone and it will be fine. Looks like a slider of some type, so yeah they live in water.

151

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

But the reason it’s there is because my dumb cousin took it off the road not knowing where to take it and took it in my backyard :( I don’t want them to die now without water ..

148

u/mellowman24 Jun 22 '20

Find out where they picked it up from and bring it back there. It will be ok for a bit without water.
You should know that in some places it can be illegal to possess a native animal caught from the wild.

94

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

What about the babies ??? What will I do with that now

141

u/mellowman24 Jun 22 '20

Call a local conservation society they might be able to help. There might be an organization nearby that saves turtles hit by cars and will also save the eggs.

86

u/mellowman24 Jun 22 '20

The eggs likely wont survive where they were laid. The turtle was probably stressed as hell from being grabbed and just laid them in the first half-assed nest it could make. Lucky it didn't just expel the eggs without trying to make a nest

56

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

Omg :( Thats sad if true ... ugh I don’t understand why he did that 😩 .. ok I’ll keep an eye on them and see..

53

u/hikeit233 Jun 22 '20

Future reference if a turtle is in the road, move it across in the direction its facing. Or just wait and flag traffic for the little guy

51

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

Yes I know this but my cousin doesn’t .. I don’t know why he would take it with him -.- so dumb lol I’ve been keeping an eye out in my backyard . So far no sign of the turtle yet . Hopefully it comes back so I can take it back to where it came from

56

u/healeys23 Jun 22 '20

Also, you can protect the nest from animals in the meantime. These are directions for how to make a more permanent nest protector but I’m sure you could just rig something up in the meantime to keep the eggs safe from scavengers.

21

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

Awesome thank you!

31

u/Baconator278163 Jun 22 '20

If a conservation group can’t really help or take the eggs a good idea is to build a little protective fence around the nest area so no one steps on it

We had a massive snapping turtle lay eggs in our yard so we protected it and a little while later about 40 little babies all cane squirming out so we picked them up and put them in a nice swampy area away from the road

11

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

How long do they usually take to hatch? I read somewhere it takes about 70-120 days

16

u/Baconator278163 Jun 22 '20

I don’t know for sure, it’s usually different for each turtle but that amount sounds about right. When they hatch you’ll know because they burrow up out of the ground and start moving around

Edit: it’s around 72 days for painted slider turtles, which that one looks like :)

7

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 22 '20

Ok cool thank you

2

u/msamantharae6 Jun 22 '20

Laying eggs!

2

u/Throwaway46676 Jun 22 '20

So beautiful 😍

I know it’s tempting to touch or interact, but it’s better to keep your distance and look but not touch

2

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '20

Hey OP! Whats the status on the turt?

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Aug 17 '20

Still haven’t come out yet . My dog the other day knew something was there and digged unfortunately and opened 2 eggs :( the rest are safe and I hid them under dirt again and covered around it but I seen in the egg he destroyed a whole fetus !! Lol pretty cool but I know now they aren’t dead and are growing ! I’ll deff post pics once they are out

2

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '20

Huh, thanks! Feel free to get back in touch once they hatch/hit the 70 day mark.

1

u/Titus_Favonius Aug 19 '20

Did you just cover them back up or did you move them at all? I've read that a short amount of time after the egg is laid the embryo attaches to the top of the egg, and if placed upside-down or sideways the embryo can detach from the shell and die. It's recommended that if you have to move them you mark the top of the egg so you can replace it without harming the embryo.

You may want to fence in the area the eggs are buried - something like this

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Aug 19 '20

I actually didn’t touch or move them at all. I only touched the 2 that already died from my dog . The others were all stuck together still. I only poked at it to feel it then just buried it back up lol. And I did cover them up good this time

1

u/NapalmForBreakfast Jun 23 '20

Any ideas on how old that turtle might be?

1

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

No I haven’t seen her all day .. hopefully she’s still around so I can take her back :(

2

u/NapalmForBreakfast Jun 23 '20

She's a big girl. She's fine :)

1

u/stoprunwizard Jun 23 '20

Looks like a painted turtle, we could tell better if you took another photo of her belly. What region are you in?

1

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

I didn’t really want to pick it up . But it had orange stripes on its face and neck when I looked. I’m in NY

1

u/BasharAtreus Jun 23 '20

Give us an update when you can, please! Curious if the turtle or the eggs will make it. :)

5

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

Well someone confirmed that eggs take about 70 days to hatch... so I will hopefully try and keep them safe by then if they are alive due to mom being stressed and laying eggs somewhere new like someone else said . I have a lot of coyotes and hawks and foxes in my area so hopefully the babies are safe I’ll try making a little cage like thing over it . But I will try and keep you updated

1

u/BasharAtreus Jun 23 '20

Thank you! Best of luck. :)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '20

!remindme 70 days

1

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1

u/whatdafukman Jun 23 '20

That looks like a box turtle. Never take them out of their habitat. They stay in a 40-60 acre area their whole lives and if they are taken away from their home they will spend the rest of their lives looking for it.

1

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

I think it’s another type of turtle because it didn’t look anything like a box turtle to me but that’s sad :( I’ve been trying to wait for the turtle to come back so I can bring her back but no sign

2

u/whatdafukman Jun 23 '20

Try to make a taped off spot around the nest to discourage predators but also to where the babies can get out when they hatch.

1

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

Yea I’m gonna be doing this ima try buying wood and fencing to make a little nest ontop

1

u/breakerofsticks Jul 30 '20

any news? how are the eggs? has it come back to the yard?

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

Here’s the video by the way .. hopefully it will make you sleep better at night knowing I’m not lying about a damn turtle in my backyard who laid eggs.. smh

https://streamable.com/hytnjz

Ps ignore the “he” I was excited.

1

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

? Based on my post history? Lol I post about shoes mostly what are you talking about. This is obviously my first encounter ever with a wild turtle .. why would I be Cappin.... ? And clearly you can see the dirt on its shell from digging.. I even have a video but it’s on my Snapchat of catching it while it was showing . I can try to export the video but I don’t understand why I would lie ? Lol

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

Jordan scarf post? What are you talking about

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

That wasn’t even made up though lmao I even had text proof lol

2

u/BeatByAGirlxxx Jun 23 '20

She seriously ordered a scarf and received Nike shoes . I don’t know what to tell you?.. if you think it’s a lie then ok I can’t force you to believe me lol but it did happen . And I own a lot of Nike shoes because I’m a sneaker head and purchase them?. I wouldn’t purchase a big ass sneaker just cu and make up a fake post for karma .. I actually lost a bunch of karma for it .. never deleted the post lol cuz it wasn’t fake. So you can go to bed now and leave me alone over a turtle post 😂