Eastern Box Turtle Laid An Egg.

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BaddestMarie

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I had just noticed that my female eastern box turtle laid an egg. I took the egg out of her tank without shaking or turning it. I read online to put the egg in a container with dirt & make sure its moist & damp. Im honestly not sure if the egg is even fertile & it has a little spot on the egg thats a little deflated. (As you can see in the picture) I just wanna know if i can hatch the egg with the little container i made. Also if the little deflated spot is normal. Please, i need help before its too late.
 

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foxboysracing

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That is very normal with a box turtle egg. You need to keep the humidity up, and keep the egg about 80-84 degrees. That's the temp I keep them in my incubator. The dent is normal. Is there a crack in the top of the egg? Does it go all the way through the shell of the egg? If you increase the humidity of the egg, the dent will often correct itself. If the egg completely caves in and almost is in half, toss it. It is bad. Otherwise give it time. Don't give up easily. If it gets a small tear in the shell, very very carefully cover the whole with a super small piece of scotch tape. Do not cover any more than you have to. The egg has to breathe. You sound like you know to never turn or rotate it. The baby will drown. If you need more help let me know. I have some unexpected eggs in the incubator now too. At 84 degrees they should hatch in about 60ish days. If the temperature is lower it takes longer, maybe even 3 months.
Good luck!!
 

AnthonyC

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That is so cool! Good luck & I really hope it hatches for you!! :cool::)
 

BaddestMarie

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foxboysracing said:
That is very normal with a box turtle egg. You need to keep the humidity up, and keep the egg about 80-84 degrees. That's the temp I keep them in my incubator. The dent is normal. Is there a crack in the top of the egg? Does it go all the way through the shell of the egg? If you increase the humidity of the egg, the dent will often correct itself. If the egg completely caves in and almost is in half, toss it. It is bad. Otherwise give it time. Don't give up easily. If it gets a small tear in the shell, very very carefully cover the whole with a super small piece of scotch tape. Do not cover any more than you have to. The egg has to breathe. You sound like you know to never turn or rotate it. The baby will drown. If you need more help let me know. I have some unexpected eggs in the incubator now too. At 84 degrees they should hatch in about 60ish days. If the temperature is lower it takes longer, maybe even 3 months.
Good luck!!

-Thank You :)
I was so worried about the deflated area. The deflated area has a little crack && you can see a little bit inside the egg but not too much. Idk, its sorta hard to explain. When i look in to the crack, i see like the egg shell top a little lifted off of the deflated piece. Also, when i took the egg out of the tank yesterday, it looked really yellow && one of the ends were chalky. Is that normal? Also this is her 2nd egg she has given us. Last month she had popped only one egg out, but by the time i got to it, my russian tortise trampled all over it :( Im really hopeing there is a baby tortise in this new egg so i can prove my husband wrong. He just thinks the egg is infertile.
 

BaddestMarie

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AnthonyC said:
That is so cool! Good luck & I really hope it hatches for you!! :cool::)

-Aww, thank you soo much. I really do hope it hatches for me too. I just am sooo excited everyday knowing that a little baby might be born near christmas :) I think the hatch date will be December 26th 2011.
 

dmmj

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If the membrane inside the egg is exposed/open then the egg is no good, the egg itself can crack as long as the membrane does not get ripped or torn.
In my experience one egg is usually not fertile, but let's hope for the best.
 

fbsmith3

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A female Box turtle can not produce a fertile egg without a male box turtle. She is housed with a male Russian Tortoise, no matter how many times he mates with her, they will never produce young. Sorry, but I do not want you to get your heart set on an impossibility.


God Bless.
 

BaddestMarie

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dmmj said:
If the membrane inside the egg is exposed/open then the egg is no good, the egg itself can crack as long as the membrane does not get ripped or torn.
In my experience one egg is usually not fertile, but let's hope for the best.

-When i look inside the little crack, i dnt see the membrane. You know when you eat boiled eggs && when you peel the egg shell off, it kinda has a thin papery layer behind it? Well, thats what i see when i look in the crack. Also i think this egg might be fertile because in June, my husbands brother came back with this turtle when he visted the carolinas. He said he saw her crossing the highway, so he saved her. I honestly feel like he shouldve left her in the carolinas because her age is unknown && i feel bad that she was taken away from her state. We live in New York. I read online that the egg could be fertile due to the fact that they can store sperm in their bodies for 4yrs.
 

BaddestMarie

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fbsmith3 said:
A female Box turtle can not produce a fertile egg without a male box turtle. She is housed with a male Russian Tortoise, no matter how many times he mates with her, they will never produce young. Sorry, but I do not want you to get your heart set on an impossibility.

God Bless.

-They havent mated because he pays no attention to her && i havent heard him scream. Also she is a wild eastern box turtle that my husbands brother gave us back in june. He found her in crossing the highway iin the carolinas && brought her back to us.
 

dmmj

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You should be able to see the membrane if a little of the egg is cracked, if you can't see it then the membrane then the egg is no longer good, but don't throw it away until you know for sure, stranger things have happened, and of course the turtle should have been left alone, but what is done is done, no point worrying about it now.
 

fbsmith3

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Yes, she can not be returned to the wild unless she can be returned to the exact spot she was found.

If she has laid 2 eggs there may be more. It might be best to set up a separate enclosure for her. It might help her lay the rest of the eggs.
 

BaddestMarie

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-This is what my container looks like with my egg in it. I just want to make sure that this is how its suposed to look. My husband put the dirt in && now a little bit of dirt/dirt dust is in the crack. Is that okay? Also i put a wet/damp paper towel over the dirt && egg. The egg isnt as yellow as it was yesterday && the deflated part doesnt look that bad now. The only thing im worried about is the little crack && if th container habitat is correct.
 

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dmmj

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Looks pretty good, are you heating it?
 

BaddestMarie

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dmmj said:
Looks pretty good, are you heating it?
-Since i live in New York, its a little cold in my appartment. Right now its 74 degrees in my room && i have a fan heater above my tortise tank. So when it turns on, the hot warm air goes into the tank. I placed the container in the tank under a lamp, but the lamp isnt a heat bulb, its just a regular bulb. The container is also on the side of the tank where i placed the heater. So that when the heater turns on, the warm air goes to the container. Also, the heater turns on every 5-10Minutes.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi BaddestMarie:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!
 

yagyujubei

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Sorry to tell you, but I don't think that egg will hatch. Sure won't hurt to try though.
 

BaddestMarie

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yagyujubei said:
Sorry to tell you, but I don't think that egg will hatch. Sure won't hurt to try though.

-Idk either. But the shell isnt deflating && it looks the same as it did on monday when she laid it. If it was infertile, wouldnt it be deflating? Or rotting out by now?
 

yagyujubei

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I found an egg a couple of weeks ago that had a dent, laid on top of the ground. Put in the incubator, it developed a tear at the edge of the dent, similar to yours. After another week, the dent got a lot bigger, and I discarded it.

Also, eggs can stay at room temp for a long time before they go bad.
 
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