Egg broke not fully developed embryo

NickTheTurtleMan

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5 Year Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
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Hey guys so I got 3 females testudos graecas and it was the days for the first clutch to hatch. So I went ahead and start digging to find the babies. Anyway so i found all of them some were still in the egg so I got them very carefully and place them in vermiculite. But one kinda slipped out two times in the soil. After 3 days all of them hatched but this one didn't so i thought I probably kill it so I let more 2 days. Nothing came out so I decided to try and broke the egg very carefully and so i did and I found a fully developed alive tortoise in it. But what should i do now? (Check photos) Do those nerves have any impact on the tortoise? I thought of taking it out and placing it on some towels with water? Or should i rehydrate it with some sprays of water here and there or what? I know I didn't have to open the egg but I was kinda frustated as all the other guys from that clutch hatched.
 

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zovick

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10 Year Member!
Joined
Nov 17, 2013
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Hey guys so I got 3 females testudos graecas and it was the days for the first clutch to hatch. So I went ahead and start digging to find the babies. Anyway so i found all of them some were still in the egg so I got them very carefully and place them in vermiculite. But one kinda slipped out two times in the soil. After 3 days all of them hatched but this one didn't so i thought I probably kill it so I let more 2 days. Nothing came out so I decided to try and broke the egg very carefully and so i did and I found a fully developed alive tortoise in it. But what should i do now? (Check photos) Do those nerves have any impact on the tortoise? I thought of taking it out and placing it on some towels with water? Or should i rehydrate it with some sprays of water here and there or what? I know I didn't have to open the egg but I was kinda frustated as all the other guys from that clutch hatched.
99% of the time, when you open an egg as you did, the baby will not survive.

You need to break through the membrane that is covering the tortoise with the tip of a sharp knife, then push the membrane down around the tortoise's shell and make sure it is able to breathe by tilting the egg so that the head is out of the fluid. You may need to touch it in the nose a couple of times to get it to pull its head back to stimulate the breathing response.

You then need to keep the yolk sac from drying out until it is absorbed. This is best done by leaving the baby in the bottom half of the egg shell with the goopy albumin and the fluid which was in the egg. If the yolk gets dried out before it can be absorbed, the babies die. If the yolk sac gets punctured, either by you or by the baby's toenails, the babies also die.

You just have to make sure it can breathe and hope for the best.
 
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