Deformed hatchling

[Brian55]

I am new to breeding Indian star tortoises. I have collected a nice breeding group and had 5 of 6 females lay eggs last year and just got my first eggs from one female today. A couple days ago the first egg from last year hatched. I left in incubator until today. Had a piece of shell sort of stuck on back. I moved to a humid aquarium and then gently pulled shell remains off. Noticed was deformed more severely than realized. I have about 18 more possible to hatch. They are in a hovabator with some sulcatta eggs also set to 88 degrees. Sulcatta hatched normal. I'm concerned about "littermates" of this one as well as eggs I collected today. Can anyone give advice? Lower temp? No others have hatched yet so I don't know if all will be like this or if it will get better with time. Just concerned.

 

[zovick]

That baby is just a little asymmetrical from growing inside the egg. It will get its more normal shape gradually over the next few weeks. If you look at the Star Tortoise eggs, they are usually a longish oval in shape. The tortoise has that same basic shape from its positioning inside the egg shell The baby tortoises' shells are rather pliable as they grow inside the eggs, so their shells take the shape of the outer egg shell as they become larger. It will go away as it grows.

Nothing wrong with your temperature. You will most likely get all females at that temp. If you want to get male Star Tortoise babies, I would set up a second incubator at 84-85 degrees. I used to split my clutches of eggs up and incubate two thirds of the clutch at 88-89 and one third at 84-85 so that I could offer unrelated temperature sexed 1.2 trios. From experience, I can tell you that TSD works very well in Star Tortoises.

 

[Markw84]

Agree completely with @zovick There is nothing wrong with that baby. Tortoises (and Turtles) can emerge from the egg is pretty "interesting" shapes. You will see this little one smooth out to a nice round shape within a week or two.

 

[seanang168]

Such a beautiful baby. It reminds me of Chocolate Truffles though... hmmm...

 

[TortoiseKeeper6]

Hatchling Tortoises can be a little misshapen when they hatch but they will then adjust to normal.