How do turtles reproduce?

Generally, the gonads of turtles mature when they are over 8 years old, and mature well when they are over 10 years old. The mating time of turtles begins in late April, usually from afternoon to dusk, and they mate on land or in water. Turtles lay eggs on land, and the egg-laying period is from May to September, with the peak egg-laying period from July to August. Before laying eggs, turtles often crawl to a more secluded place far away from the shore and a looser soil (the water content of the soil is 5% to 20%) at dusk or before dawn, and use their hind legs to dig holes in the soil alternately (generally the hole is about 10cm deep and 8 to 12cm in diameter), and then lay eggs in the hole. After laying eggs, they dig soil to cover the eggs, and use the plastron to flatten the soil before leaving. Turtles do not have the habit of guarding holes and protecting eggs; another reproductive characteristic of them is that the maturity of eggs is not synchronized. Therefore, female turtles lay eggs 3 to 4 times a year, and lay 5 to 7 eggs in one hole each time. When breeding turtles artificially, before the mating period, first select the sexually mature turtles, carefully raise them, and provide them with sufficient nutrients, especially feed them with more protein-rich feed to help the turtles produce excellent reproductive cells; secondly, during the mating period of turtles, sexually mature and strong male and female turtles are raised together in a 1:1 ratio and allowed to mate naturally. During the egg-laying period of turtles, it is necessary to keep the breeding pool quiet and the sand on the open space outside the pool at a suitable humidity so that the female turtles can lay eggs smoothly. Finally, turtle eggs should be collected at any time and artificially incubated to obtain a higher reproduction rate, improve economic benefits, and reduce losses.

Artificial incubation of turtle eggs

The shell of turtle eggs is grayish white, oval, 2.7-3.8cm long and 1.3-2cm wide. Under natural conditions, the hatchlings will hatch after 50 to 80 days of incubation. However, the natural incubation of turtle eggs is easily affected by external conditions such as temperature and light, and the harm of natural enemies such as snakes, rats and ants, which makes the incubation period long, and the hatching rate and survival rate are low. In order to improve the hatching rate of turtles, artificial incubation can be used.

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