How Many Eggs Do Turtles Lay? (with Examples) –

My turtle has recently laid some eggs, she is a red eared slider and she laid 20 eggs, which seemed a lot to me for a turtle. This got me wondering how many eggs do other turtle species lay, so I decided to do some research. Here is what I found out.

How many eggs do turtles lay? The amount of eggs that a turtle will lay depends on its species, here is a list of how many eggs certain turtle species lay:

• Red eared slider turtles: 10 to 30 eggs
• Box turtles: 3 to 9 eggs
• Snapping turtles: 20 to 40 eggs
• Mud turtles: 2 to 5 eggs
• Green sea turtles: 100 to 120 eggs
• Flatback turtles: 50 to 60 eggs
• Leatherback turtles 100 to 120 eggs

The number of eggs that a turtle will lay varies greatly based on its species, as you can see sea turtles will lay a lot more eggs than aquatic turtles, but why is that. There are a lot of reasons why this happens and most of them are very tied to survival, so in the rest of the article, we are going to take a closer look at the reasons and factors that influenced turtles to lay such a diverse number of eggs.

Biological Reasons

Every successful species, that lays eggs, had at some point to trade off the number of eggs that it will be able to lay for the size of the eggs themselves. This is because there is a limited amount of eggs that a female can carry.

A turtle egg is not only a shell that will protect the embryo until it’s fully developed, it also contains a lot of nutrients that will allow it to develop. So if the egg is too small there won’t be enough nutrients inside to allow the embryo to fully develop. Turtles will still rely on the nutrients of the egg even after they hatch, they will have a small yolk sack, from the egg, that is attached to their carapace that will feed them through their first weeks of life until they are able to find their own food. So even if the turtles have enough nutrients in the egg to develop is not enough, they will still need some more to be able to survive the first weeks.

On the other hand, if the eggs are too big, then it just wasteful. While the turtles will be able to hatch without any problem and they would be able to survive enough time to be able to procure their own food, the amount of space used by the eggs would be unnecessary.

Scientists believe that there is a perfect egg size for any species, but for a species to reach that point, it will take them a very long time. It takes multiple generations that will lay a different number of eggs until the perfect balance is found. But there are also a lot of external factors that will influence this balance, so with the effects we humans have on every habitat it’s hard to imagine that the perfect balance will be achieved too soon. When I talk about our influences over environments I don’t mean exclusively the bad influences, I also mean the good influences as well. There are a lot of areas where we helped the vegetation grow back after natural disasters, kept under control harmful animal and insect populations, and a lot more. Even if those are good things they still influence the balance of things.

One other important biological factor is the size of the turtle species also plays a major role. After all, we can’t expect a small red eared slider turtle to be able to hold hundreds of eggs like a giant leatherback turtle is able to.

This covers most of the biological factors that come into play when it comes to the number of eggs that a turtle will lay, now let’s talk about the external factors which play a major role.

External Factors

All living species, this also includes us, will have more offspring when the conditions are harder. This is the natural way to respond when there aren’t too many things that you can do to help them. So the logic is: if I have more offspring at least some of them will have the chance to survive, and this is a perfectly logical argument, the more chances you have the bigger the odds of succeeding.

If we were to compare the general conditions that aquatic turtles, like the box turtles, mud turtles, and red eared sliders, have to endure compared to the conditions most sea turtles have to endure we can definitely see why it’s perfectly normal for sea turtles to lay hundreds of eggs every year, while the aquatic turtles only lay around 20 to 30 eggs each year.

For a steady population to exist a female turtle should have two baby turtles that will reach adulthood, one boy and one girl, during its lifetime. It doesn’t seem like much, but most sea turtles’ populations are in decline.

The loggerhead sea turtle will lay around 500 eggs each year, compared to that the box turtle will lay between 3 and 9 eggs. Both their species are neither declining nor increasing, they are steady. If the loggerhead turtle were to lay fewer eggs their population will start decreasing until they reach extinction, and if the box turtles will lay more eggs they will overpopulate their habitats. Most turtle species have a pretty good balance between the size of the eggs and their numbers, so there is no problem with that, the problem comes from external factors. Now let’s take a closer look at some of these factors.

Natural Predators

Turtles have a lot of predators, and they are at their most vulnerable point during their first few weeks of life. Very few baby turtles reach adulthood and this is because most of them fall prey to predators, and the more predators are in the area the more eggs they have to lay. Most aquatic turtles live in relatively safe areas where they have a fair chance at survival so turtles don’t need to lay too many eggs. On the other hand, sea turtles are attacked by predators as soon as they leave the nest. Nesting areas are usually filled with birds that wait for the babies to leave their nests.

Turtles are also very vulnerable while they are in the egg. A lot of animals eat raw eggs, and turtle eggs are no exception. Usually, turtles do their best to lay the eggs in a safe place where the predators won’t be able to find them, but of course, predators also have a good idea where to look for them, and since most turtle species don’t stay to protect the eggs, they are very vulnerable at this moment.

So a good way to know how safe is a habitat for a turtle is to just look at the number of eggs that they lay, the more eggs they have to lay, the more dangerous the habitat is if they lay fewer eggs than it means that the area is relatively safe.

If you want to know more about turtle predators check out this article: What Are the Predators of Turtles? , after you are done with this one.

Environmental conditions

The environmental conditions also affect the number of eggs that a turtle will lay. If the area has favorable conditions then the babies have a higher chance of reaching adulthood, so there don’t need to be so many eggs. But if the conditions are very bad, the turtles will have to lay as many eggs as possible so that at least a couple of them will survive and reach adulthood.

Climate change

The gender of a turtle is determined by the temperature that the eggs were exposed to while the embryos were developing. If the temperature is hotter then there will be more female turtles, if the temperature is colder that there will be more male turtles. At the moment temperatures are rising so more female turtles are born than male turtles. So to counter this problem most turtles have to lay more eggs so they have more chances to have more males so that they are able to continue to reproduce.

Related Questions

How long does it take for turtle eggs to hatch after being laid? It depends on the species but in general, the eggs should hatch after 60 to 90 days.

Why do turtles leave their eggs? Turtles, like all most reptiles, don’t have a maternal instinct, and as a result, they leave their eggs after they are done laying them.

Are turtle eggs soft? Different species of turtles lay different types of eggs, most of them are hard-shelled, but some of them have a leather-like texture.

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