Turtle care - Turtle Breeding

I would like you take note that this turtle breeding care sheet it's just a generic one for water turtles. Best for you would be to find some special books, and then you'll know for sure what exactly your turtle needs. Than if you decide that you want to bred turtles please be sure that you can take care of all the baby turtles or find the a home.

Breeding Water Turtles

First of all you must poses a pair of mature turtles from the sexual point of view. This means the male turtle must be about 3 years old and the female turtle around 5 years old. You should try to breed only healthy animals.
Usually turtle breeding starts somewhere in the fall. It's good for your turtles to winter cool them when you decide to breed them. The period that is recommended for this cooling process is January and February. This process should be six to eight weeks long. the idea is to keep a the turtles at a 50-60F degrees temperature buy turning of all the heating. In general cases the turtles will eat very little during this cooling period. Then another important step in the turtle breeding is leaving your turtles alone without disturbing them. After the 6-8 weeks of cooling turn on the heaters to normal temperatures.
During the turtle breeding period make sure that your turtles are well fed. This is very important for a successful breeding. The female turtle must be in a great shape, well fed and with al the vitamins that she needs. So be sure that she has all the calcium and D3 vitamin that she needs.
The best thing for your turtle breeding would be to take place somewhere outdoor. It's much easier for them. if you can't provide them an outside location it's not such a big problem but even indoor or outdoor you will have give them a nesting area.
The nesting are should be some kind of box with 12-16 inches deep of moist soil or sand. The majority of water turtles lay multiple clutches per summer. Every clutch has from 2 to 10 eggs. The turtle will lay for about 24-48 hours for every clutch. The time intervals between the clutches are a few weeks long.
After the laying remove the eggs. Remember that you mustn't turn over the eggs. I suggest you to make a mark on the top of the eggs so you wont risk to put them in a wrong position.
The next step in the turtle breeding process is the icubation. First of all you'll have to make an incubation box. The box must contain moistened Vermiculate. The vermiculate it's not hard to find. I think that you can get vermiculate from any garden centers in your neighborhood. Then creafuly insert the eggs in some little hole that you will make them in the moisten vermiculate. It is possible for some eggs to stick together and it's not bad to try to separate them. But be gentle. If the separation is not easy the do not force. Live them be.
The hatching lasts 60-120 days. In this perios you must kepp the box seald. Do noy forget to make some airholes in the box. Do not let the in the box anf forget about them. You have to check them weekly or more often but not daily. And alwasy keep an ey on the teperature. You should keep it at about 82F. When you see that the Vermiculate gets dry, spray carefuly with water to keep it moisten.
After the baby turtles hatch you must keep them separated from the adults. You should feed thyem diet food once a day. The baby turtles are carnivorous, but i advise you to give the fruits and vegetables.

In conclusion the turtle breeding procces it's not so simple, because teher are many factors that must be taken in consideration. But if you fallow my instrucyions exactly you should manage to breed your turtles corectly. If you aren't sure enough of what you have to doo there are many turtle breeding books that you can consul