Why did my yellow belly turtle eat her baby eggs?

When my yellow belly turtle became pregnant,I was told to put turtle sand in a cat box with a bit of water for her to lay her eggs,I filled up when it was needed but when we were out all day we came back and she laid her eggs in the bottom of the tank and then just ate them the next day. After three weeks or so,we found another egg but just laying on the basking ledge. So we picked it up gently with a dish and berried it in the sand and thought it was going well as my turtle was very protective over the box but now I'm so shocked and confused that my turtle just dug up her egg and ate the shell and all!! Someone please shed some light on this as I'm very shocked, confused and quite upset to be honest!

Comments for Why did my yellow belly turtle eat her baby eggs?

Click here to add your own comments

Apr 01, 2016
 Answer
by: Anonymous

Maybe she doesn't want that her baby born in a tank or box or even unnatural place.
Jul 27, 2013
 Turtle eating their own eggs
by: Turtleboy7

Our turtle also ate her egg. We were quite shocked, but have heard of other turtles doing the same thing.
Apr 15, 2012
 pregnant yellow belly turtle
by: Anonymous

Can anyone please tell me how i can tell if my turtle is pregnant? She has started rapidly moving in her tank (which obviously she shares with a male)flapping her legs at you through the glass and she keeps going onto her incased basking platform of a night and it is like she is trying to dig. she is about 5-6" long and has seemed to grow much quicker than the male?
PLEASE HELP??
Jan 23, 2012
 Eating eggs.
by: Anonymous

I'm not sure if parakeets and turtles are the same at all, but my parakeet laid eggs quite a few times, and then ate them after a day or two. We finally realized that she was doing this because she knew that her eggs weren't fertile and that there was no point in continuing to try and keep them safe and warm. To see if your turtle is doing the same thing as my parakeet, take a flashlight and see if the egg has an embryo inside or not and then base your turtles actions off of that information.
Jun 10, 2011
 eating eggs
by: Anonymous

I can't say why your turtle ate her eggs. What I can say is that turtles aren't like birds. They just lay the eggs and then leave them like snakes and other reptiles do. They don't incubate them and don't raise the young.

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Ask Your Turtle or Tortoise Question.