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stehaggan

Help! Advice needed re incubating tortoise eggs

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Well firstly on friday we bought a new puppy called Daisy... very beautiful I am very excited for getting her and will post pics soon.

 

But I need help... i have had 2 horsefield tortoises for about 8 years. Each year they do mate but never anything happens and we took the female to the vets a few years back as her shell seemed to change shape quite a lot and they said she would never be able to lay eggs or be penetrated because of the shape of her shell underneath.

 

Well shock - she has just laid an egg! Its the size of a bantam egg... im in shock .. i dont know what to do... she has laid it on the sand in her tank and hasnt buried it so i will need to look after it.

 

I am leaving it where it is at the minute as she has not long since laid it and shes looking a bit odd so may lay more....

 

HAS ANYONE ANY EXPERIENCE IN THIS? - WHAT DO I DO? OTHER THAN RUN OUT AND BUY A VERY EXPENSIVE REPTILE INCUBATOR TOMORROW?

 

I have googled and cant find much on it :-( I am presuming they are like hens eggs staying fertile until incubated but i really don't know. If she doesn't bury it in the night i am thnking i should put it in an egg box and keep it in the tank so it doesnt get broken and then get an incubator.... eeek :-/

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Thanks everyone :-D

 

I have contacted a local reptile shop who is making me a reptile incubator today and I will pick it up this afternoon.

 

I figure I will give it a go hatching it and if it doesn't hatch at least I will have the equipment should she lay again. She has only laid the one but I am going to put her in a container tonight with diggable flooring so that if she needs to lay any more that will help her along.

 

This has really come out of the blue as I knew I have a boy and girl (I didn't when i got them as babies) but the vet said she wouldn't be able to have eggs due to her shell shape. But looking back at photos this has changed a lot since so I suppose I have just been a bit blase as you don't really realise these changes on a day to day basis.

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This is Daisy... as promised... she is only 6 weeks old so we are going to pick her up on 28th the day we get back from New York.

 

daisy.jpg

 

This is Olivias sneaky egg she laid. As you can see she has pushed it out of the way with her feet trying to bury it but the sand is a bit too heavy for digging so hopefully it will hatch in an incubator.

 

egg-1.jpg

 

And this is Jasper - just generally being Jasper. I made him wear my St Paddys day bow tie as punishment for chewing it. Funnily though he seems to have eerily matching glowing green eyes in this photo.

 

paddy.jpg

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Well shock - she has just laid an egg! Its the size of a bantam egg... im in shock .. i dont know what to do... she has laid it on the sand in her tank and hasnt buried it so i will need to look after it.

 

Can you not just pop it under a broody hen? :lol:

 

(sorry, I do realise you were after sensible answers)

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Haha I actually did consider that myself as I've an excellent bantam would be willing but shed turn them :-P

 

I've got it in an incubator now so fingers crossed I can hatch it. If its even fertile!

 

Takes about 70 days tho I struggled with 21 for the chooks lol

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Well I made her a special nesting box and within a few hours laid another one. I kept checking on her but unfortunately she smashed the egg before I saw :-/

 

She may or may not lay others as they lay between 2-5 per clutch so will update on anymore ;-p

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