Maturity age
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Red-Eared sliders will be mature enough for breeding at about
5 years of age, this is when the female shell size is about 15 cms (about
6 inches).
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Mating dance
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The mating dance of this species is very elaborated and interesting
to observe. The male swims towards the female and starts caressing
her face with his long front claws. He might also swim around her
in circles. He might also strike her front shell lightly with his
claws (this looks as if his front leggs are trembling). If she is receptive,
she will accept him, otherwise, a fight might start. If after 45
minutes, the female is not receptive to the male's dance, you should remove
her from the tank and try again in about two days. The mating
itself takes about 15 minutes.
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Mating tank size
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Use a 30 gallon tank. Keep the water warm but shallow
(About 5 inches), since during the mating the male might get so concentrated
that he might forget that the female has to go out for breathing!.
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After mating
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It is advisable during pregnancy to keep the female separate
from the male, so that she will not get disturbed so much. You should
handle her ONLY when absolutely necessary. Keep the water very clean
and give her enough space. Heating is also very important as they
will spend a lot of time basking to warm themselves and the eggs inside.
You might notice a change in the appetite of the female, she might refuse
to eat. This is normal. Nevertheless, continue offering her
food and consider a dietary change, she might feel inclined to eat certain
things only.
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Nesting quarters
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Prepare a 20 gallon tank with about 4 inches of potting soil
or soil/vermiculite mixture.
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Laying eggs
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The average gestation period is two months, but if she doesn't
find a suitable place for laying her eggs, she might retain them inside.
During the last two weeks you will notice that she will want to spend more
time on land, sniffing and digging around inorder to find a proper place
for laying her leggs. At this point, you need to place the female
in the nesting quarters. Try to watch her as much as you can to see where
she lays the eggs. She might lay from 2 to 20 eggs.
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Removing the eggs or
not? |
Some keepers prefer to leave the eggs where they were laid.
A good point of doing so is that they do not need to handle the eggs, digging
them out could dammage some of them. A bad point is that monitoring
buried eggs could be a bit difficult. The worst that could happen
is that one egg goes bad, gets fungi that then spreads to the other eggs...
or some of the hatchilings might have a problem digging their way out.
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Incubation box
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If you decide to remove the eggs to incubate them, you will
need to prepare an incubation box. You can use a large plastic sweater
box or a plastic shoebox. ( Plastic boxes are good since they can be throughly
cleaned and keeps well the moisture.) Drill a series of small holes
into the lid for ventilation. (Make no more than a dozen holes of
about a quarter of an inch in diameter). Then, set up a bedding
in the container of about 2 inches of vermiculite. Use the heavy
grain rather than the fine one. Moisten the vermiculite evenly.
Make sure it is DAMP and not WET.
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Removing the eggs
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This process has to be done very carefully. Scoop back
small sections of the substrate around the next, very slowly and carefully,
trying to feel the eggs with your fingers at the same time. Once
you find an egg, before removing it, get a water based felt-tipped marker
and make a small mark on the top of the shell. This is important
since you need to place the eggs in the same position the turtle layed
them. Once you have transfered all the eggs to the incubation box,
set it somewhere where it will not be disturbed . Check the eggs
a few days after by just removing the lid, but don't handle them!
Check for rotten eggs, which you should throuw away immediately.
If you see that an egg is developing fungi, you can remove the fungi with
a 50/50 solution of antiseptic mouthwash and water, which you should apply
carefully with a paintbrush.
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Hatching
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You should start to observe the eggs more carefully about 80
to 85 days after they had been laid. Hatching time is comming!
Once the time comes, the hatchings will cut the egg shell with something
called the egg tooth, which falls out about an hour later and never grows
back. If they don't feel secure, they will remain inside their shells.
Do not try to take them out until they have come out on their own. (they
might not come out until the following day). Once they come
out, you will notice a small sack hanging out of their bellies. This is
the yolk sac that fed them while they were incubating. DO NOT try
to remove this sac, trying to remove it can kill the baby turtle.
It is better to wait that it drops on its own. Once it drops, you
will notice a split in the plastron. This will heal by itself too,
you don't need to treat it.
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Care of the hatchlings
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Set them on a 20 gallon tank per dozen. Provide them
with a dry land area and a shallow water area. Newborns need to master
the art of floating and staying underwater for long periods of time.
Don't assume that they will survive only with water. Newborn red-eared
sliders can actually drown if you neglect them a dry land area. Once they
are set up in their tank start feeding them. It is important to get
them to eat. Start by offering them one by one all items on the proper
slider diet. Note: You might have to 'chop' all of the food
you offer since they are small babies. This includes choping
earthworms, mealworms, crickets. I know, this sounds disgusting but
believe me, you will get used to after a while and it won't bother you
anymore. As with addult sliders, newborns need to have their full
spectrum light. So don't forget to include that in the tank.
The full spectrum light will help the newborn shells to harden. Keep the
water neatly clean. If you don't have a filter change the water every
two days. This is very important since baby sliders are more
prone to getting eye infecitions (that can leave them blind for life or
even kill them) than adult sliders.
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