Help needed for surprise eggs!

[kitn42]

Last Tuesday, right before I had to go on vacation to Las Vegas one of my female sulcatas decided to lay her first clutch of eggs, 14 of them. I was completely unprepared for them becasue I thought she was too small to lay eggs. All I could think to do is put them in a container on some eco earth substrait that is for my snake and put them under the stand that holds my snakes cage. It is heated by my snakes heat mats and is holding around 80 degrees with a humidifier on in the room. Do I need to add another heat source or is that ok?
Also at what stage will I be able to tell if they are fertle? About 5 months ago I got a new home for my big male one because he was too aggressive to my smaller male and I think he is too small to breed but thats what I thought about her also.... Lol!
The pic was taken right after I pulled her off of them because as she was trying to bury them she was knocking them around and broke that one open.

 

[egyptiandan]

Congratulations

You'll need to keep the eggs at 86 to 89F.

The nest looks like she had a hard time digging and what she was doing when she broke the egg/s was moving them around. It doesn't mean she was done laying. They are done when they start scaping dirt over the nest. You might want to keep an eye on her, in case she didn't lay all her eggs.
It's possible that they are fertile, by either male.

Danny

 

[kitn42]

Ok ill add another heat pad. She was trying to put dirt back on the nest but the ground is so hard she could not get it. She is eating like crazy again so I think she is done having them. Thanks!

 

[Tom]

Here's what I would do, if you want to try to incubate them:
1. Go to your local feed store and get an egg incubator. Usually around $50. I'm using the "Hovabator" brand right now. Alternatively, you can order one online. I like LLL Reptile.
2. Get some vermiculite from your local garden store. Mix in bottled water to a ratio of 1:1 BY WEIGHT, NOT VOLUME. This ends up being only a little water.
3. You can either use the incubator as your egg holding container or go get a plastic "shoe box" from Walmart or Target to put into the incubator.
4. While you are at Walmart, get a little digital thermometer with a remote probe.
5. Leave your eggs where they are and spend a day setting the thermostat and watching the temp. You don't want it to fluctuate much and it takes a while to get it set just right. I set mine around 86-87.
6. Once the temp is set, locked down and stable, CAREFULLY move the eggs into the incubation media. Do NOT rotate, spin or turn them in any way. You can carefully mark them with a number two pencil for a reference point if you like. I put an X on mine while they are still in the nest.
7. Wait. Don't hold your breath. I'm told 90-120 days is normal. Mine are hatching at 105 days. First clutches are sometimes infertile. Mine was, but sometimes they are 100% fertile too.

If you do it right it will lead to this: http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-14950.html

This is my first time successfully incubating tortoise eggs, so this is all new and fresh to me. Please don't hesitate to take advice from others with more experience than me. I'm very inexperienced at this, but I'm still eager to help.