MetaChat - Oh my!

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06 May 2006

Oh my! You know when people have to rename their kittens after they get older? My 8 year old turtle - Graham - just laid eggs.→[More:]He.. er.. She is a Pelusios subniger and there are about eight eggs, all crushed. I wonder if this egg-laying came about as I'm not playing with him..er..her as much as I used to..... Anyone have any turtle wisdom to share?

post by: dabitch at: 01:46 | 19 comments

...cleaning the tank now. There's around twenty eggs. All broken. Oh man this is so weird. And now I can't remember if I bought Graham in 1999 or what...Then Graham would be 7 right? Not happy about me taking him..er..her out of the tank by the way. Majorly peeved on that one.

posted by dabitch 06 May | 02:04

Wow. That's a lot of eggs. You might want to ask at the turtletimes.com forums; here's a little something that might give you a bit of information. There's also this, that I can only find in a cached version.

posted by taz 06 May | 02:25

A turtle will retain her eggs inside her body until she can find a suitable place to lay, but she can't hold 'em forever, thus she lays them in the water, having no other choice.

Holy crap! Thanks Taz - this explains why she's been trying to Houdini her way out of the tank so much lately.... She has no small rocks on her basking spot at the moment (and sand has always been right out as she tends to try and eat everything). Wow, had I only known this dude was a lady I might have put two and two together...

Good thing I have a turtle minerals+++++exxxtra calcium at home though.

posted by dabitch 06 May | 02:39

Ok, I gotta rename Graham, how do y'all like "Nessie"?

posted by dabitch 06 May | 02:40

Do the eggs look like this? That's gotta be weird to see all of a sudden.

posted by cmonkey 06 May | 02:48

Yeah, but they're all broken and some have thicker (whiter) shell than others. Theres a lot of egg-gunk floating around.. the tankwater was basically foggy white when I got up, as if Graham had just broken all the eggs (its cleared up somewhat now - Ive taken Graham and the shells out only so far). Some of the egg-inside could fished out with my little net.

posted by dabitch 06 May | 02:56

"Nessie" sounds wonderful!

posted by taz 06 May | 03:11

That little movie of Graham rocks, especially the last bit where she whizzes across the screen perfectly in time to the music.

posted by essexjan 06 May | 03:17

Thanks. Hehe, I'll never get used to the "she". :)) But as you can see, she rips plants out of their pots and whizzes around like the turtle version of speedy gonzales. I'm saving up for a much bigger tank that's easier to clean (you know the kind with a cabinet underneath) for her so she can do laps!

posted by dabitch 06 May | 03:40

Nessie sounds good. I'd have suggested Wendy after Wendy Carlos, the synth pioneer who was born Walter. But that's the kind of sick mind I have.

posted by dodgygeezer 06 May | 03:42

This is just me, but I'd keep "Graham".

posted by Ethereal Bligh 06 May | 04:27

^^ What EB said.

Then when those little eggs hatch, grow, and have babies of their own, you can change the name to "Graham-a".

posted by reflecked 06 May | 07:03

Yeah, I'd keep Graham as the name, too.

But my girl cat is named after a boy and the boy cat is named after a girl, so you know, take my suggestions with that in mind.

posted by safetyfork 06 May | 08:51

call him Graham-Ma.

posted by jonmc 06 May | 09:35

hehe - Ok, Graham-ma just laid three more eggs in the bucket (where she is when I clean the tank) this is weeeiiird!

posted by dabitch 06 May | 10:00

So these are infertile eggs? You don't mention another turtle.

posted by timefactor 06 May | 10:43

And I didn't mean to spoil it for anyone who believes in immaculate turtle conception. Maybe you could name her 'Mary'.

posted by timefactor 06 May | 10:45

Yeah, no other turtle. So she's just getting rid of some ballast tehn I gather. It's just so weird that she is a she!

posted by dabitch 06 May | 11:20

i'm glad i didn't have to start pooping out eggs to know i was a girl

what a way to get the news

posted by ethylene 07 May | 12:03

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