Darla's second clutch!

[LRZtorts]

So excited for my Russian Tortoise, Darla, to lay for the second time since I have had her. I had been waiting and watching closely and finally on the night of Dec. 17th, 2015 I caught her digging her nest. Unfortunately I did not get to witness her lay this time. When I carefully checked the nest site the next day to my surprise I found 5 large beautiful eggs! Her first clutch she had 3 which after 12 weeks all hatch successfully. This is a picture of Darla after I first got her. She has always been a pig!
Darla and my male Mikey. This is about 3 days after her lay These 2 pictures are 13 days after incubating. 2 eggs began chalking after 7 days, now all 5 have chalking! I tried to get a picture showing some of the chalking, you can see in the picture of 3 eggs the one at the top is less transparent than the other 2. This was the first one to start to chalk up and is more noticeable than the others.

I will have more updates and pictures throughout the incubation. Her last eggs took exactly 12 weeks to hatch so I am expecting these to be around the same time frame and hopefully will have babies come March!

 

[Tom]

This is great news. Thanks for posting this for us. I wish more people were breeding russians!

 

[pip]

Aw! I want baby tortoises. lol

 

[Carol S]

How exciting! All my Russian tortoises except for one are hibernating so I will not have any eggs until April or so. I miss my tortoises and cannot wait for it to be Spring so they will wake up from hibernation.

 

[leigti]

Aw! I want baby tortoises. lol

I know how you feel. When ever I see a post like this I want to go get my female Russian a boyfriend. I know someone that might let me borrow one

 

[LRZtorts]

Tonight is day 18. I think I am seeing some slight blood vessels forming on 2 different eggs already. Temp has been running close to 89 F with a humidity of 69%.
Anyone have any comments about humidity, I can't seem to find a straight answer as to what the best humidity is for incubation.

 

[Oxalis]

Thanks for sharing -- very cool! Babies are always so exciting. I have never bred my tortoise so I'm curious what is meant by the eggs "chalking." Is the shell just becoming less transparent? Is that how you can tell the little baby is developing?

 

[LRZtorts]

Thanks for sharing -- very cool! Babies are always so exciting. I have never bred my tortoise so I'm curious what is meant by the eggs "chalking." Is the shell just becoming less transparent? Is that how you can tell the little baby is developing?

Yes it is the egg becoming less transparent and calcium build up on the shell. This is usually a sign of the eggs being fertile. It takes a few more weeks to actually start to see the blood vessels developing really well.

 

[Oxalis]

Yes it is the egg becoming less transparent and calcium build up on the shell. This is usually a sign of the eggs being fertile. It takes a few more weeks to actually start to see the blood vessels developing really well.

Very cool. Thanks for answering my question! I am crossing my fingers that your eggies turn into adorable tort babies soon!

 

[LRZtorts]

Just over 3 weeks of incubation and I have noticed blood vessels in all 5 eggs. Here is what the inside looks like now
If you look closely in the center you can see small red veins appearing. They should become much more visable in the weeks to come.