How long do you leave new born in incubator?

mike taylor

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I have three little hatchlings . Do I have to leave them on damp paper towels in the incubator till the belly is completely closed ? I have my enclosure setup and ready . Using Coconut choir as substrate nice and soft .
 

G-stars

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I have three little hatchlings . Do I have to leave them on damp paper towels in the incubator till the belly is completely closed ? I have my enclosure setup and ready . Using Coconut choir as substrate nice and soft .

First of all congrats. What I do is put them in a brooder box once they start hatching. For substrate I use moist paper towels, unless they start eating that then I switch over to a towel. I don't put them on any substrate until their yolks are completely gone.
 

Carol S

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I leave them in the incubator for 24 to 48 hours even if the yolk sac is completely absorbed and closed up. I soak them after they are completely out of the egg and then I put them on moist paper towels. I also put a couple of small pieces of food in the container. They hide under the paper towel and stay nice and warm in the incubator. Also when an egg starts to hatch I take the egg out of the container that has the hatching material in it and place the egg on moist paper towels, making a nest to hold the egg in place. That way I do not have to worry about the hatchling ingesting any of the hatching material.
 

G-stars

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Here is its little belly . What do you think ?

Looks good to me. Some hatch with almost no yolk sac while others come out with a full one.

Also I don't like leaving them in the incubator as some will eat the incubator substrate.
 

mike taylor

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I have them on damp paper towels .
 
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mtdavis254817

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I read somewhere that you can make a" donut" out of a damp paper towel and position the yolk sack in the center and keep them in the incubator 24 to 48 hrs as stated above
 

Tom

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Here is what I do:
1. As soon as I see the first pip, I carefully add moisture to the substrate and bump humidity up.
2. As soon as the tortoise steps out of its egg shell under its own power, I remove it from the incubation box, rinse the vermiculite off, soak the baby and prepare its brooder box. In my opinion hatchlings should never be left on their incubation media because they EAT it, even when they have a big giant yolk sac hanging under them. They also drink when they still have a big yolk sac.
3. While they soak I set up a brooder box with lightly damp paper towel, their lightly rinsed egg shell and some greens. If I don't use the greens, they will eat the paper towels. I keep the brooder boxes in the incubator or a warm closed chamber.
4. Every day I soak them and change them to a new box with fresh paper towel and greens. I keep transferring over their egg shells until they are gone.
5. I don't move them to an enclosure with substrate until the yolk sac is completely absorbed and the umbilical scar closed up.

These steps give me the best results I've ever seen. Just ask Dean. The babies don't poop for about two weeks and their first poops always have little flecks of vermiculite even though I follow these steps. I can't imagine how much vermiculite they would eat if left in the chamber for days or a week. I had some hatchlings I bough from someone else die because their GI tracts were lined with the perlite incubation media that the breeder left them on while they absorbed their yolk sacs.
 

mike taylor

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This is what I'm doing . I have a incubator setup with paper towels and greens . Incubator is set to 85°f paper towels are damp with fresh greens on top . Every day I soak them change paper towels and greens . So I don't need any lights on them like uvb ?
 

Anyfoot

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Here is what I do:
1. As soon as I see the first pip, I carefully add moisture to the substrate and bump humidity up.
2. As soon as the tortoise steps out of its egg shell under its own power, I remove it from the incubation box, rinse the vermiculite off, soak the baby and prepare its brooder box. In my opinion hatchlings should never be left on their incubation media because they EAT it, even when they have a big giant yolk sac hanging under them. They also drink when they still have a big yolk sac.
3. While they soak I set up a brooder box with lightly damp paper towel, their lightly rinsed egg shell and some greens. If I don't use the greens, they will eat the paper towels. I keep the brooder boxes in the incubator or a warm closed chamber.
4. Every day I soak them and change them to a new box with fresh paper towel and greens. I keep transferring over their egg shells until they are gone.
5. I don't move them to an enclosure with substrate until the yolk sac is completely absorbed and the umbilical scar closed up.

These steps give me the best results I've ever seen. Just ask Dean. The babies don't poop for about two weeks and their first poops always have little flecks of vermiculite even though I follow these steps. I can't imagine how much vermiculite they would eat if left in the chamber for days or a week. I had some hatchlings I bough from someone else die because their GI tracts were lined with the perlite incubation media that the breeder left them on while they absorbed their yolk sacs.
Hi Tom. Because I know you are not pigeon holed to one species.:D. Do you or would you follow this procedure with all species of torts?
 

Tom

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Yes. I do leopards the same way, and thank you for not narrowing my horizons. :D
 

mike taylor

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@Tom can you post pictures of your brooders ? So we have visuals .
 

Tom

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@Tom can you post pictures of your brooders ? So we have visuals .

Here is all I can find. This pic is post soak and I've moved them into their fresh clean boxes. After this pic I put the lids back on the shoe boxes and put the boxes back in the incubators. I don't like to put more than 6 hatchlings to a box and I prefer 4-5 if I have the space.

Tip #6 would be to feed them all sorts of different things in their first few days and weeks. In this pic they have a tender young grape leaf and a sliver of young opuntia pad. They ate both all up by the next day. My hatchlings eat anything and everything when they go to their new homes.
jhuj3a.jpg
 
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