You don't always get a perfect baby

[Yvonne G]

I thought it might interest those of you who have never seen a brand new baby tortoise, to see how they are folded inside the egg. This one is a bit extreme, as they're not usually as folded as this one:

The head is towards the right and the white bump behind the fold is a bit of yolk sac to be absorbed yet.

Here he is right side up, and another one with an extra marginal scute:

This baby is from the batch that hatched about 3 weeks ago, and there are still 3 more eggs unhatched. I have no idea why some hatch and some wait to hatch at a later date unless it insures a better survival rate in the wild.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Really brand new baby

And they are so cute also !

 

[Dorrie Siu]

RE: Really brand new baby

Awww... a girl!

 

[kathyth]

RE: Really brand new baby

That's the newest i've ever seen!
Great pic!!

 

[wellington]

RE: Really brand new baby

So cute. As far as hatching times. Probably the first to hatch the first eaten
Just kidding, I have no clue

 

[Joanne]

RE: Really brand new baby

How do they even move around in the egg to break out?

I understand how chicks do the old pip and zip, but what do tortoises do?

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: Really brand new baby

They actually do 'spin' (in slow motion) around inside the egg. Also, they swell up a bit and this helps to break the egg. When I discovered this baby he was on his back, so I'm thinking this is why he hadn't unfolded much.

 

[diamondbp]

RE: Really brand new baby

lol thats awesome

 

[LolaMyLove]

RE: Really brand new baby

So cute! Love baby Leo's.

 

[N2TORTS]

RE: Really brand new baby

SIMPLY LOVELY!!!!!

 

[Laura]

RE: Really brand new baby

you are breeding your leopards again> ??

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: Really brand new baby

Yeah, the first leopard egg I ever hatched I kept for sentimental reasons. He turned out to be male and he's been taking care of my two females (about twice his size) ever since he realized he had boy parts.

 

[Yvonne G]

So I finally got around to taking the new baby out of the incubator and I set her up in this really, really, REALLY big habitat:

...and I thought I'd better wash off her head because it looked like there was vermiculite stuck on her eyes. But, no, I'm afraid I'm going to have to euthanize this baby. There are no eyes where eyes belong, but there is a big raw-looking spot on the top of the head with maybe eyes under the skin on top of the head...and the top beak is deformed too:

and the folded plastron is not opening up either:

Poor little baby. This might have happened when the temperature inside the incubator spiked about half-way through the incubation period.

 

[AZtortMom]

Aww. Poor little girl

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

Whatever your choice is, to euthanize her or not, I'm sure it'll turn out okay. Good luck with the little girl.

 

[tortoise5643]

Do you have to euthanize him? Do you think their is no way it van survive without eyes? Sorry this just saddens me.

 

[kezilulu]

Oh no :-( are you sure you can't just let her live and look after her? [LOUDLY CRYING FACE]
xXx

 

[Ashes]

That's sad

 

[Yvonne G]

I would be more than willing to give the tortoise to someone who wants to try to take care of it, but I don't have the time for it and it upsets me to see them suffer.

I don't see any nares and every so often she opens her mouth to breathe. Without being able to smell it would be very difficult to get a blind tortoise to eat. Almost certainly it would have to be tube fed, and its so small I doubt that can happen either.

Please don't make me feel any worse than I already do. Sometimes one has to be the bad guy.

 

[Ashes]

That's understandable... Just too bad she was born like that. [GREEN HEART]