breeding my yellow bellied turtles

Question
Hi Nicole my name is David i have two yellow bellied turtles a male and female i am very sure that they have mated and am wondering do you have any tips on how to breed them successfully and what would be a good habitat for the female to lay her eggs.I have marked on a calendar when i think they mated and it was approximately around the 12th of January how long has she left and would it be hard to incubate them myself or let a local pet shop do it i haven't got an incubator but would be willing to get one to have the thrill of incubating them myself and if it would be easy enough where would i find a good incubator capable of doing the job properly.If you could answer these questions i would be very greatful.Thank You

Answer
Hey David,
If you think they have already mated you are going to want to put a box of either sand or a sand/ potting soil mixture in a container in the tank(the dry part of the tank of course!), so that she can climb in and lay her eggs. To be completely honest with you, when it comes to yellow bellied turtles, I do not know how long it would take for her to lay her eggs. I would just make sure that she does have a place to lay her eggs if she needs to.

If you have a local store that would incubate them for you, I would do that. They are going to have the time, energy and experience to safely hatch your turtles. Regardless of which you choose, when the turtle lays her eggs, make sure that they stay facing up the same way they were laid. Rolling them over will kill the hatchlings. If you do decide that you want to incubate them yourself, please feel free to send a follow up question and I will go into that in more detail.

Hopefully this will help you some, please don't hesitate to ask a follow up question!

-Nicole