Mating my box turtles

Question
I have a western desert box turtle that I want to mate with a female desert box turtle and want to know if they stay together and hang with one another?  Once the eggs are laid are their parental duties over?

Answer
The Western Box Turtle (Terrepena ornata) has two sub-species, the far more common in the pet trade 'Ornate Box Turtle' (T. o. ornata) and the rather rare 'Desert Box Turtle' (T. o. luteola). Calling it a 'Western desert' does not really help tell me which one it is for sure.

Now... in general, the Western Box Turtles are tougher to keep healthy and breed than the Eastern Box Turtles are, and anyone thinking about breeding ANY animal need to ask themselves a few questions:

1. What are my plans for the young?
- Keep them (do I have the room and resources?),
- give them away or sell them (do I have some people to ask, will they get good care?), or
- let them go (not a good idea and illegal in much of the US.)

2. Do I have an unrelated pair? We should never allow related animals to mate- which also means that if you keep the young, they should never be allowed to mate with each other or their parents.

3. Are they in good health? Can they safely mate? Can she lay eggs? Any shell damage, for example, may be a sign of internal injuries that might hamper passing eggs.

4. Do I have a good incubator? You can make or buy good incubators, but it is not smart to wait until the eggs are laid- be prepared before hand! Ditto on the habitat for the baby turtles.



Now... the actual courtship. There is a lot of debate over whether it is better to keep the parents to be together or apart most of the time. The answer seems to depend in part at least on the size of the habitat. If the habitat is HUGE, let them both hang in it. If the habitat is smallish (that is, if the turtles can usually see each other), then it is probably best to keep them apart most of the time, and introduce them to each other for a day or so every few days. (Remember- in the wild, box turtles rarely see each other, and can become territorial if they feel crowded.)

Once they mate, the male has no real duties to the mother or eggs.

Here is a link about the basics: http://boxturtlesite.info/bred.html