ornate box turtle

Question
Hey, my friend and I have ornate box turtles. Mine is female and her's is male. How do we get them to mate, and how do we know when the time is right?

Answer
Kelli,

Where do I start?  First of all, female box turtles can die from egg binding.  Here is some information about it:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=17&cat=1831&articleid=3010

In my opinion, egg binding is common enough so as to not be worth the risk!  Breeding is best left to experienced breeders, and I cannot in good conscience help you breed them.

My ornate laid an egg a couple years ago, and let me tell you that egg was almost the size of a chicken egg!  I don't know how she got that one egg out of her tail... it must have really hurt because her cloaca was stretched out of shape for a week.  I would never make her go through that on purpose.

Also, try searching on You Tube for videos of box turtles mating to get an idea of how much fun it is for the female (hint: it is the OPPOSITE of fun).

Thanks for your question,
Amanda