Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:14 pm Res couple : Mating/figthing questions
Hi all,
I have 2 RES turtles, a male and a female, about 3/4 years old.
From what I was told by the previous owner they've pretty much been together since birth, and don't have any signs of previous aggression on them. They're pretty chill most of the time, just swimming basking around, but every now and then I notice them doing the claw fluttering mating thing. Depending on the time of the day and I'm guessing on the lady turtle mood, it either ends up with him trying to hump her (he might be successful, but he's significantly smaller than her so he seems to be having a hard time), or her pushing him away, sometime trying to "bite" him. She never actually caught him, and he usually just ends up getting his head back in his shell, turning around and leaving her alone (and eventually coming back for another try 5 minutes later). It's really not consistent (typically has happen one day during the last 3), and she only seems to be pushing him away rather than actually trying to hurt him, but I could be wrong (she's always going for his head, but really slowly so he always have time to avoid it easily, and she never attempted to bite him on other parts, or chased him when he turned away.
Basically I'm wondering whether they can live together without fighting to death : it seems to be really chill for now, but they might be reaching sexual maturity and I could be witnessing just the beginning of it. It could also just be them getting a bit territorial as I switched them to the new larger tank (got them from Cl, they were kept in a half filled 20 gal tank ...)
I plan to get them some more plants and rocks/pieces of wood for the tank so that they can have some spots to hide/rest, and don't stay in each other line of sight constantly.
I'm aware that the female might already be gravid. I haven't noticed any serious change in behavior, and she doesn't seem to be very agitated or eager to get out of the tank. I've tried "feelings" for eggs in front of her rear legs, but she usually tuck her legs back in when I touch her, so pretty hard to feel this area. (any tips on getting her to extend her legs back ?)
I'm planning on making her a nesting area out a plastic container over the weekend and place her in it a few hours a day, see if she eventually lay eggs.
About that : if I manage to keep them both in the same tank without aggressive behavior, how worried should I be about their mating ? I'm assuming this is pretty much bound to happen, and besides separating them they're isn't much that can be done. However how often would that be happening ? As they're captive I'm assuming they won't have mating seasons and could mate all year long, but how often does it usually happen for people having them in similar conditions ? I don't plan on starting to breed turtles, and breeding RES would just be absurd, so a few times a year would be doable, but if this happens every month or every other month, I'll probably have to find another way to make this work.
Pretty new to turtle owning, so trying to get as much info as I can, but I'm seeing lots of conflicting stuff out here, and there seems to be lots of resource on this forum, so I figured someone may be able to help me out !
Thanks in advance for any help you can get me on this !