One of my female russian tortoises has laid two eggs. The first one was one week ago and the second was about 4 days ago. I'm trying to candle the eggs, but despite all of my research, I'm having a diffcult time determining if the eggs are fertile or infertile. One of the eggs looks bascially yellow on one side, the other side somewhat clear. The other egg is pretty much yellow throughout. They both appear to be chalking. I didn't clean the eggs before putting them in the incubator, so they are pretty dirty, which is making this even more difficult. Looking for advice, pics, etc. that will help me through this process.
Russian tortoise eggs fertile or not?
- Thread starter jenstew
- Start date
Welcome. First question - is this female housed with/kept with males?
Did it bury the eggs or just lay them out on the substrate?
Yes, she's house with one male and another female. I've only had her since September, she was dropped off at an animal shelter where my friend is a volunteer - long story, but I have her now. She's probably 20-30 years old. The first egg as on the substrate and the second egg was buried in shallow substrate. She's still nesting so I am anticipating more eggs. The eggs are in an incubator at 88-89 degrees and 65% humidity. It's just so difficult to tell if they're fertile or not. Perhaps it's too soon to make that determination. IDK. I'm just looking for any advice I can get.
My advice is to leave the eggs alone. You'll find out if they are fertile or not in a couple of months.
If you just can't help yourself, give it month or so. Fertile eggs will have a very obvious orange-ish red-ish tinge to them, and infertile eggs will be clear or slightly yellow-ish. You should also be able to see vascularization by that point.
The incubation media needs to be dry, but humidity needs to be closer to 100% in the incubator.
What incubation media are you using? Don't use perlite. It can kill them.
More here:
tortoiseforum.org
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tortoiseforum.org
If you just can't help yourself, give it month or so. Fertile eggs will have a very obvious orange-ish red-ish tinge to them, and infertile eggs will be clear or slightly yellow-ish. You should also be able to see vascularization by that point.
The incubation media needs to be dry, but humidity needs to be closer to 100% in the incubator.
What incubation media are you using? Don't use perlite. It can kill them.
More here:
How To Incubate Eggs And Start Hatchlings
I put my eggs in a plastic shoe box with a lid on it and put the shoe box in the incubator. You can drill a couple of very small holes around the top of the container, but not on the lid. I use vermiculite as an incubation media. I mix it in a 1 : 1 ratio with water by weight for Sulcatas and...
tortoiseforum.org
And more here too:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
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