breeding eastern long neck turtles

[carinacat]

thinking on getting a pair
just wondering.....
would they need to be housed outside in order to breed?
also do u need to incubate the eggs like with snakes and lizards?

[Eastern Snake Neck]

Hi carinacat,

Yes, keep them outside in a large pond. If you have set up suitable nesting sites there is no need to incubate the eggs.

Regards,
Michael.

[carinacat]

ok cool. what kind of laying box do they need?
sand and straw?

[scorps]

is it posible to breed them indoors and how big would the enclosure have to be if its posible

[Eastern Snake Neck]

Hi carincat,

When a turtle is ready to nest, she will seek out what she considers to be a suitable nest site. This may be up to 200 metres away from the water. The nest is dug in the ground. The soil type may be sand, clay or and combination in between. Different females select different soil types, nest positions and distances from water.

Australian turtles are not domesticated. Whilst a laying box containing straw may be appealing to an exotic species such as a chicken, native turtles will ignore it. The best guide to suitable soils for nesting is to look at the soil types in the turtle's natural habitat. If it is a species that has been nesting in heavy clay soils for millions of years, then clay is suitable. If it is a species that nests in sandy soils, then sand is suitable.

But putting the soil into a box is not suitable. You need to build your enclosure with the appropriate soil types around your pond. The female will then select where she wants to nest.

Regards,
Michael.

[Eastern Snake Neck]

Hi scorps,

Yes it is possible to breed them indoors, but this is rarely achieved. To do it, you need to replicate the four seasons indoors. In summer you need higher water temperature, long daylight periods, a blazing heat lamp and depending on the species, some rain, the odd storm or two or maybe high humidity. All the features of a hot summer need to be re-created indoors.

Then, as you head towards winter, you need to gradually cool the tank, shorten the lighting periods so that they match the actual photoperiod of each day, reduce the intensity of the heat lamp according to the intensity of the sun, reduce feeding, etc. When you get to winter, the tank would need to reflect winter outdoors: very cold water temperatures, cold air temperatures, maybe winter rain or drizzle. Once you get past winter, you need to start the warming process, increase the artificial daylight length each day, bring up the intensity of the heat lamp, etc.

You would also need a suitable nesting site within the enclosure.

After several years of experimentation, you may find that your turtles would breed. However, most humans prefer to heat their house in winter and cool it in summer. The get turtles to breed indoors, you would need to have your house really cold in winter and really hot in summer.

The simpler solution is to keep the turtles in a large outdoor pond.

Regards,
Michael.

[ldheav]

I have bred them indoors



took about 4 years to happen tho

its a very long process as ESN says, you really need to know your turtles if you want to breed indoors

my suggestion is to breed outdoors its a lot easie, let things happen natural, rather than man made

[willia6]

Do you have to have them in a pond outside to breed or can the be in a tank?

[Dan19]

Read the above to post's William, they have answered that question.