Holy crap! One hatched!

autox19

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Ok. So now what! Lol. Did my daily check in the incubator, expected nothing then poof! There is a little fella. We are cleaning the vermiculite off with warm water. We have a small box with moist unpainted paper towel. Red heat light. And grasses.
Looks like we are taking the baby and incubator on vacation next week!

Any advice?

Odie

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autox19

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Yup. Nixed the red light. As far as vacation. It's only about an hour away and we will be in our cabin. We wont be all over.

Created a cup holding place while the egg sack gets absorbed. The cup will keep it still and there is a ring of moist paper towel to keep the weight off of it. Still reading and debating on the vasoline/antibiotic ointment.
Off to read the link you sent

Odie
 

autox19

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woke up every hour to make sure it stayed moist. so far looking good. egg sack is down to about 1/4 inch from the 1+ inch last night. We named it Prima as all my torts start with P and it is the first. Prima is very very active. not thrilled about the cup. hopefully the sack will be down enough to not isolate it in the cup.

Odie
 

EllieMay

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Ok. So now what! Lol. Did my daily check in the incubator, expected nothing then poof! There is a little fella. We are cleaning the vermiculite off with warm water. We have a small box with moist unpainted paper towel. Red heat light. And grasses.
Looks like we are taking the baby and incubator on vacation next week!

Any advice?

Odie

View attachment 247492 View attachment 247493

Awwwwww!! What an awesome experience.. keep us updated please
 

autox19

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Ok, update, we are up to 2 hatched so far. using the paper towel method of substrate until the egg sack is absorbed. weird issue. they keep trying to eat the paper towel! I have plenty of other greens in there, but nooooo, they want tasteless paper towel..

odie
 

Tom

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Ok, update, we are up to 2 hatched so far. using the paper towel method of substrate until the egg sack is absorbed. weird issue. they keep trying to eat the paper towel! I have plenty of other greens in there, but nooooo, they want tasteless paper towel..

odie
I only use paper towels for the first day or two and then switch to large grape leaves or broadleaf plantain leaves as "substrate" for them because of this reason. There are long term experienced breeders that will still tell you that they won't eat when they have a yolk sac. I keep trying to tell them...
 

autox19

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I only use paper towels for the first day or two and then switch to large grape leaves or broadleaf plantain leaves as "substrate" for them because of this reason. There are long term experienced breeders that will still tell you that they won't eat when they have a yolk sac. I keep trying to tell them...

that does make sense. and really the big thing is to keep the sack from rupturing/sticking. and if I keep the leaves wet that shouldnt be an issue. right?

Odie
 

Tom

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that does make sense. and really the big thing is to keep the sack from rupturing/sticking. and if I keep the leaves wet that shouldnt be an issue. right?

Odie
Correct.

I can't tell, but from the pics, it looks like you might have removed the baby from its shell when it pipped? Am I wrong? I leave them in their shells in the incubator until they leave the shell under their own power. Only then do I move them to a brooder box. They usually sit there for a day or two after they break open the shell, and during that time most of the yolk sac is absorbed. Some of them come out of the egg with no yolk sac protruding.
 

autox19

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Yes and no. The first one my wife took it out and put it back in. Then it came out of the shell about 5 hours later. The second one piped about 9 PM was out of the shell on it's own 10:30 the next morning.

Odie
 

galapagosgirl1

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Ok, update, we are up to 2 hatched so far. using the paper towel method of substrate until the egg sack is absorbed. weird issue. they keep trying to eat the paper towel! I have plenty of other greens in there, but nooooo, they want tasteless paper towel..

odie
I'm new at this also, but it's very important to maintain the proper humidity. Agreed with the rest, get rid of the light. Once yolk sac absorbed, it's also important to provide daily soaks. For a newbie like myself, the yolk sack was scary. My last hatchling had quite a large yolk sack but is doing fine. He hatched 5 days from the first hatchling. He is also the tortoise with the extra scute. I also replaced the paper towel with whole Romaine leaves. As Tom stated, I waited until they were completely out of the shell as you can see below.fullsizeoutput_de2.jpeg
 

autox19

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#4! Cracking us up. Pictures were 4 hours apart. He just keeps sticking his head out and looking around. Yes leaving him there until he is totally out

#3 had a broken sack. Per another thread here, we are keeping antibiotics on it and it it looking good! No bleeding and absorbing fast. Eating well.

Odie
 

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autox19

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east lansing mi
Totally laughing here. #4 is still in the egg. Still poking its head out this morning. Then when I just went to check on him he actually rotated inside the egg!
We are thinking he is agoraphobic

OdieIMG_20180812_110256_209.jpg 20180812_112937.jpg
 

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