thought I'd update as the first hatchling is now out of the brooder box today in its first enclosure along with its clutchmate that also hatched on the 11th.
So it's only been 7 days, but they are doing extremely well and growing so time to go into their first enclosure.
Here's the little one I pictured above when it hatched as the first of my 2020 season. So you can see how its grown in just 4 days from the picture at the beginning of this post.
Weighed 19.7g when hatched 2/11
Today weighs 23.4g exactly one week later. A 20% weight gain in one week.
You can clearly see the expanding growth seams. I like to see that growth before I take them out of the brooder box.
Here's the plastron. Compare to the picture at the top of thread at hatching. The yolk sac is completely healed and perfectly smooth with no wrinkles and very little indication of where it was. Amazing change in just one week. Signs of a very healthy tortoise.
In their first enclosure. Just the first two for now, but many more will join them very soon! Even though this was just after their daily bath, the one went immediately into the water dish as stayed there for several minutes.
I use my smaller 4 ft x 2 ft Smart Enclosure I build for their first home that I keep in my office. It works well as everything is easy for them to find at their very small size. I upgrade them to a larger enclosure at about 50g-60g. When I change enclosures, I try to arrange things the same way so their patterns of finding things does not have to change - just expand a bit!
Pothos Ivy, spider plant and wandering jew are the plants of choice. The pot I've been growing on the left with the wandering jew and spider plant is so overgrown it gives a great, dense hide for many babies. It's actually hard to find them in there! That's how baby tortoise love to live!!!
So it's only been 7 days, but they are doing extremely well and growing so time to go into their first enclosure.
Here's the little one I pictured above when it hatched as the first of my 2020 season. So you can see how its grown in just 4 days from the picture at the beginning of this post.
Weighed 19.7g when hatched 2/11
Today weighs 23.4g exactly one week later. A 20% weight gain in one week.
You can clearly see the expanding growth seams. I like to see that growth before I take them out of the brooder box.
Here's the plastron. Compare to the picture at the top of thread at hatching. The yolk sac is completely healed and perfectly smooth with no wrinkles and very little indication of where it was. Amazing change in just one week. Signs of a very healthy tortoise.
In their first enclosure. Just the first two for now, but many more will join them very soon! Even though this was just after their daily bath, the one went immediately into the water dish as stayed there for several minutes.
I use my smaller 4 ft x 2 ft Smart Enclosure I build for their first home that I keep in my office. It works well as everything is easy for them to find at their very small size. I upgrade them to a larger enclosure at about 50g-60g. When I change enclosures, I try to arrange things the same way so their patterns of finding things does not have to change - just expand a bit!
Pothos Ivy, spider plant and wandering jew are the plants of choice. The pot I've been growing on the left with the wandering jew and spider plant is so overgrown it gives a great, dense hide for many babies. It's actually hard to find them in there! That's how baby tortoise love to live!!!