Turtle Eats her own eggs

[snailie12]

Hello,

I have an Eastern Box turtle. Some kids in the neighborhood found her, she was missing a foot and has some shell damage, so my boyfriend and I decided to take her in. At the time, we thought she was a boy, but after witnessing her eating her own eggs, we soon changed our minds about her sex.

Since then, we have evidence that she has laid atleast 2 other batches (2ish eggs at a time) of eggs, and has eaten them all. The batch layings have been about a week apart.

Is this normal???

 

[Josh]

i dont know how normal this is, but maybe its because she's having nutritional problems...
someone with more experience with turtles will be able to tell you better than i

 

[Iluvemturts]

This is common with boxies. Its not all bad that shes eating them, at least the nutrients are going back in. Has she burried them? She may be young and have to learn to burry them...the leg shouldnt be too much of a problem. Ive read that a boxie with no hind legs was able to burry her eggs. It may just take time for her to learn how to do it. You can take the eggs out of the enclosure and incubate them artificially to try to salvage them if you want. If you get them in time

 

[halfnelson]

Mine do that too. Give her a cuttlebone (break off the hard shell side of it with a butter knife first). I'm hoping mine will stop doing that once she has a place to bury them.

First hard freeze will be tonight. No more going outside.

 

[snailie12]

that I know of, she hasn't burried them. I've caught her eating eggs twice, and I saw shell remains once. She's a good size, probably about 8 or 9 inches from nose to tail.

 

[halfnelson]

Once they learn how it's hard to break them of the habit. Maybe add some chopped up hard boiled eggs to their food? Then their own eggs wouldn't be such a treat?

 

[Jacqui]

That's a shame. Does she have places in her enclosure to bury them? Is she also under stress?