Berkeley
Active Member
- Joined
- May 4, 2014
- Messages
- 297
Who doesn't like baby turtles? They are one of the cutest things on the earth.
I remember the very first one I hatched, an eastern mud turtle. Back when I was about 11 years old, the pair that I had at the time surprised me with a few eggs. I was not expecting to get eggs at all; in fact, I had not even been trying to breed them. But there they were- one morning I went downstairs to turn on the room lights before I went to school and found three mini-marshmallow sized eggs drifting along in the bottom of their aquarium. I pulled them out, half buried them in some wet sand and covered them with a towel. I then put one of the snake cage lights right over the container they were in and dutifully turned it on and off every morning and night for weeks. It finally paid off when I removed the towel one day and saw a tiny little head poking out of one of the eggs. The little guy emerged, and a second one several days after that. This was long before I even thought about keeping notes, so, sadly, I have no data on what time of the year this was, what the temps I incubated at were, how long the eggs incubated, and so on. I just have the memories!
But enough waxing poetic, here are some pictures of a few other species of turtles and tortoises I have hatched out over the years since then. I never get tired of seeing those little faces.
(forgive the quality of some of the pictures, many were before I really took the time to learn how to take photos, and some I was just plain ol' jittery because I was so excited)
Gulf Coast Spiny Softshells
Redfoot Tortoises. I got my first redfoots in 2004 and built a group of them over the years. The adults started laying for me this last year.
Common Snapping Turtle. I'm particularly proud of this group because I salvaged 49 eggs from a road killed female and 46 of them hatched. All of the babies were released at the site where the mother was from.
Southeast Asian Box Turtle
Diamondback Terrapins
Asian Brown Tortoise
Beal's Eyed Turtle
Common Musk Turtles
Redeared Sliders
Yellowbellied Sliders
If you are still with me, thanks for looking. I hope you enjoyed.
--Berkeley
I remember the very first one I hatched, an eastern mud turtle. Back when I was about 11 years old, the pair that I had at the time surprised me with a few eggs. I was not expecting to get eggs at all; in fact, I had not even been trying to breed them. But there they were- one morning I went downstairs to turn on the room lights before I went to school and found three mini-marshmallow sized eggs drifting along in the bottom of their aquarium. I pulled them out, half buried them in some wet sand and covered them with a towel. I then put one of the snake cage lights right over the container they were in and dutifully turned it on and off every morning and night for weeks. It finally paid off when I removed the towel one day and saw a tiny little head poking out of one of the eggs. The little guy emerged, and a second one several days after that. This was long before I even thought about keeping notes, so, sadly, I have no data on what time of the year this was, what the temps I incubated at were, how long the eggs incubated, and so on. I just have the memories!
But enough waxing poetic, here are some pictures of a few other species of turtles and tortoises I have hatched out over the years since then. I never get tired of seeing those little faces.
(forgive the quality of some of the pictures, many were before I really took the time to learn how to take photos, and some I was just plain ol' jittery because I was so excited)
Gulf Coast Spiny Softshells
Redfoot Tortoises. I got my first redfoots in 2004 and built a group of them over the years. The adults started laying for me this last year.
Common Snapping Turtle. I'm particularly proud of this group because I salvaged 49 eggs from a road killed female and 46 of them hatched. All of the babies were released at the site where the mother was from.
Southeast Asian Box Turtle
Diamondback Terrapins
Asian Brown Tortoise
Beal's Eyed Turtle
Common Musk Turtles
Redeared Sliders
Yellowbellied Sliders
If you are still with me, thanks for looking. I hope you enjoyed.
--Berkeley