natures not working!

[cam191919]

i still have my box turtles and they still wont lay eggs. i have 1 male and 2 females together for more than 8 months. its especially anoying that i saw the male "on" both females many times just a few days after putting them together. i have seen no signs of them laying or burying eggs anywhere. does anyone know what could be happening? they are florida box turtles living out side year round in fl. there enclosure is 8 by 12 feet and has a dirt bottom, patches of grass, and plenty of places to hide.


also i have seen wild mice around the enclosure. is it possible that they could have eaten the eggs? tho i doubt it

[Notophthalmus]

Mice will eat eggs if they can get to them, but they're not major nest predators. It's quite possible that a raccoon or kingsnake could have raided the nest, but you still would probably have seen signs of digging. For the rest, I defer to Vicious_Fish.

[Vicious_Fish]

Can you give us a photo of the enclosure? Perhaps you have egg predation or an unsuitable egg laying substrate. I like to mix mulch, sand and peatmoss together for an egg laying substarte. I keep it very loose and I turn the soil a few times in the spring so it's easy for the females to lay eggs in. How has the weather been where you live? Prehaps the soil isn't moist enough for the females to lay eggs in as well. Box turtles need a pretty high humidity for their eggs to properly incubate.

[cam191919]

i tried to take a picture and i couldent get it on the computer and i even tried to make i in paint but couldent get it on here. im not great with computers

[cam191919]

its been kinda dry lately but i mist the enclosure every day. the soil might not be loose enough. do you cover the entire enclosure with substrate vicious_fish?

[Vicious_Fish]

its been kinda dry lately but i mist the enclosure every day. the soil might not be loose enough. do you cover the entire enclosure with substrate vicious_fish?

Yes, my entire enclosure is on dirt. In spots I have mixed mulch, sand and peat moss for my females to lay eggs in. Definitely continue to spray the pen with water in the late afternoon/early evening. Just give it time. I don't remember if I asked you how old they are but box turtles take a while to become sexually mature. They usually don't start laying eggs until they are around 7-9 years old.

Here's a photo of my pen after I built it last July. It looks basically the same now, just with more plants.
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc213/The_Interloper/Turtle-Pen4.gif

[cam191919]

i dont know how old they are but the male has interacted with the females, tho im not sure that matters

[Vicious_Fish]

Most male turtles are well....horny and will attempt to breed if they come in contact with a female. This goes especially with most male box turtles. In the wild the chances of a male and female running across each other are pretty slim. So they usually mate when they cross paths. Females take longer to mature then males as well. So just be patient, I'm sure you'll get some eggs soon. :)