How turtles mate: features, proper care and rearing of turtles

Turtles are currently very popular among pet lovers. Most of the species get along well in apartment conditions, they are easy to care for, which is why even preschool children can handle it.

Keeping turtles at home

Actually there is three options for keeping turtles:

• Freely, just walking around the apartment.
• In a terrarium.
• In specially equipped enclosures.

You should choose depending on what kind of turtle you are going to buy. That is, in other words, you should find out in the store when buying where this species lives in nature, what they love most.

clean up after the turtle in fact, even easier than for a cat, which is why there will be no difficulties in maintaining and caring. She should be fed only in one specific place, and not anywhere, she should get used to it. Over time, the animal will get used to it and will come to this place when it wants to eat.

When the heating is turned off in the apartment and it becomes cool, then it is necessary to put the turtle in a box for the night, it will be warmer. Very many species of these animals, when they freeze, become lethargic and sick, may even die.

When cleaning the aquarium, be sure to turn off the heater, otherwise it may break, then after cleaning it must be turned on again. In order to control the temperature, it is necessary to install special thermometers, and even two are best. Mercury thermometers should not be used, as it is very harmful.

How to determine the sex of a turtle?

The main goal for turtle lovers is breeding them in captivity. Breeding turtles, of course, requires a high-quality selection of females and males. But it is quite difficult to determine the sex of many species of these animals, since they do not have pronounced dimorphism. There are several methods for determining gender currently:

1. On the back side of the plastron there is a slight concavity – this is in the male, but in the female – it is not observed.
2. The male has a longer tail than the female.
3. In almost all species of aquatic turtles, females are larger than males, but this is usually only the case for terrestrial and box turtles.

In fact, it is simply impossible to distinguish a male from a female by color, but there are several significant exceptions. For example, male box turtles have red eyesand females are yellowish brown. The female spotted turtle has orange eyes and a yellow chin, while the males have brown eyes and a tan chin.

Turtle care and mating

In order for turtles to start mating, they need a stimulus. The nature of different species of these animals is usually depends on where you live in nature. Turtles that live in temperate latitudes are excellently stimulated by extension, warmer temperatures, and spring sunshine. Due to these changes, sex hormones are released into the bloodstream.

European turtles love, so to speak, “rough, tough” mating, it borders on something violent: the male hits the female’s shell hard enough and bites her limbs until she completely submits to him.

The male, upon meeting with the female, begins shake one’s head hard then up, then down, then at full speed rushes to the female. Then he stops and stretches his limbs to full length, retracts his head, begins to sway and beats his head into the shell of the female.

In the event that the female starts to run away from him, then he quickly catches up with her, hits her head and bites until she obeys him. Next, the male climbs onto the back of the female and places his tail under the tail of the female. Land turtles during mating make sounds that are more like a screech.

laying eggs

After mating has occurred, after about six to ten weeks, the female begins to lay eggs, in some species this takes a little longer, since they store sperm in the genital tract for a long time.

All types of these animals lay eggs on landeven if they are water. Eggs are laid in the substrate, for this a hole is made, which is then buried. They can be either oblong or round in shape, their diameter is from 2,5 to 7,5 centimeters. The temperature required for incubation is + 26-33 degrees. The timing of the incubation period also varies depending on climate and temperature. Usually incubation period takes 50-70 days.

In general, breeding turtles of any kind is not such a difficult matter. The mating of turtles should be treated very carefully and responsibly, otherwise nothing may work out. If you did everything right, then after a while, or rather, in two or three months, you will have children.