Do you remember the experiment I started 5 months ago ?

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

Some of you might remember my old thread about my "Black Cherryheads", that usually gets very dark when they develop and hatch by themselves in the substrate I use in my enclosures ? Well here is the old thread below. Short summary of it is that on march 2 I took two eggs that were laid by one of my females, and buried them into the same substrate and placed the container inside the incubator. The idea was to see if the hatchlings got darker and if the substrate had anything to do with it ?

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...-we-find-here-then.132995/page-3#post-1291514

The result was shown when I inspected the incubator a week ago, and you can see for yourself that they by no means became any darker by the substrate ? So the question is still a mystery, why the eggs that I miss and develops inside the enclosures gets so very dark...?

 

[Anyfoot]

Some of you might remember my old thread about my "Black Cherryheads", that usually gets very dark when they develop and hatch by themselves in the substrate I use in my enclosures ? Well here is the old thread below. Short summary of it is that on march 2 I took two eggs that were laid by one of my females, and buried them into the same substrate and placed the container inside the incubator. The idea was to see if the hatchlings got darker and if the substrate had anything to do with it ?

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...-we-find-here-then.132995/page-3#post-1291514

The result was shown when I inspected the incubator a week ago, and you can see for yourself that they by no means became any darker by the substrate ? So the question is still a mystery, why the eggs that I miss and develops inside the enclosures gets so very dark...?

View attachment 182091 View attachment 182092 View attachment 182093

Haha, I was only thinking about this a few weeks back. Do you only have 1 male?

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

Yes, in that top enclosure there is only one male and three females. My own thought was that it was one of the females that is the link to this phenomena, but all three females is producing wonderful red and yellow redfoot cherries, so I am out of ideas...

 

[Anyfoot]

Yes, in that top enclosure there is only one male and three females. My own thought was that it was one of the females that is the link to this phenomena, but all three females is producing wonderful red and yellow redfoot cherries, so I am out of ideas...

So you've incubated these 2 in the same substrate with the same parents as when you get black cherries out of the ground.
What variables can there be:-
Temps
Humidity
Gene ratio with same male/female
Diet.
Can anyone think of anything else?

Do you know what temps are when left in ground?

 

[allegraf]

The hatchlings that turn up in my enclosure are generally darker than those incubated inside. I think the swing in temps through the winter months must have an effect. Those hatchlings also tend to be smaller but way more plucky in twice attitude.