Desert Tortoise eggs.

[armandoarturo]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

I'm going to hi-jack Armando's thread for just a minute:

Tortuga_Terrestre:

Living in Southern Calif, I'm really surprised to read what You've said. There are several chapters of the California Turtle & Tortoise club in SoCal and they usually ALWAYS have desert tortoises that are looking for homes. Put yourself on their adoption lists and you'll get one, I'm sure! You just have to have a nice, safe yard for a tortoise.

http://www.tortoise.org/cttcmemb.html

Sorry Armando!


On the egg subject. It depends upon if there's just gas growing inside the egg,or if there's rotten matter. The gas will explode quicker than the rotten stuff. Usually around 4 or 5 months. I've never really timed it.

Alright...=) thank you x)
did you have a look to my eggs? ..
what do you think?
do they look fertile?

 

[armandoarturo]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

hey everyone!!!
some little fellas are making it!!!

---

This is the first one... looks like soon there will be another 3 more out!!
2 of were not fertile, 2 looks like they just didnt make it, and 4 were fertile! I'm excited!!

 

[Jacqui]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

I am excited along with you! Sweet!

 

[armandoarturo]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

Sad news =/
4 eggs out of the clutch of 8 eggs were fertile.
1 did hatch. The other 3 didn't make it.
I found a vett, and came today to have a look at the eggs.
(This because I saw a lot of movement last week on one of them, and suddenly it stopped).
He gave me bad news, they were dead =(
He is not an expert on tortoises, so he couldn't really tell me what happened.
He carfeully opened one egg, and a completely formed hatchling was inside, but dead =(, it looked like the eyes had disappeared....
Isn't this sad? He told me that the other eggs were in the same condition. =/
He didn't opened them tough because I didn't wanted.
I know I cant blame myself for this, because it wasn't really in my hands, this eggs were not good handled by the first owner, and since the begining i knew something like this was going to happen. But I just feel so sad =(
At least one did make it =(
I guess im just going to let them in there one or two weeks more, and after that I will just softly burry them somewhere in the yard.
*sigh*

 

[Laura]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

Where they too dry? or not warm enough?
How is the one that did make it doing?
Cant blame yourself.. but try to learn from it all..

 

[armandoarturo]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

No, they weren't too dry.. and they were warm enough. Not as good as an incubator, but instead they were in a warm shaded place outside, in a place where my females usually lay their eggs.
I sure did learn a lot, and I know that its not exactly my fault, as they were handled very bad with the first owner... but next time I will be prepared.
Its also the first clutch of this female, So that adds more reasons, also it seems that she kept the eggs inside for longer time, because there was no soil in her past enclosure.
Actually she laid them over the floor :S
I was testing a broken egg, and the shell its well to hardened :S
oh well... I tried my best.
The little hatchling its doing just fine ... not eating too much, but thats understandable... thanks for asking
I´ve raised hatchlings before... and this little one looks very healthy!

 

[HarleyK]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

At least you were able to save 1, great job. You were very lucky to rear those eggs and have them in your possession.

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

Yeah...like Harley said. Look on the bright side. You now have a beautiful brand new baby desert tortoise!!

This is called DIS, or dead in the shell. In birds it is usually because the baby was too weak to be able to break out of the egg and the egg was too dry and tough for the baby to break through the membrane.

If you get more eggs next year, when they are ready to hatch be sure to keep the ground moistened. Not wet, but moistened.

 

[moswen]

RE: Dessert Tortoise eggs.

well, considering the topic of conversation on this thread, this may be inappropriate, but desert is spelled with one "S", i thought this was a thread about an edible sweet dessert that looked like a tortoise egg... lol, i guess i wasn't that far off the mark! ... had to stop reading though, i can't handle the eating live animals stuff.