# Big egg big neonate



## cdmay (Feb 21, 2014)

First of the 2014 hatchling cherry heads have emerged. In this clutch laid on 8/5/13, one of the eggs was exceptionally large. The measurement of that egg was 6.2 X 4.1 cm. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to weigh it. The other three eggs in the clutch were normal sized for the 12+ inch female.
The first egg from the clutch pipped on Jan 5th...





It emerged as a decent looking but very large neonate...





In the foreground you can see the largest egg from the clutch. 
The next hatchling from this clutch also pipped on Jan 5th and it too was rather large...



 

Finally, some five weeks later the largest egg from the clutch began to hatch. 





Like most elongated eggs I've hatched, the emerging neonate was sort of 'spiraled' inside of his egg so as to fit.





Seeing a hatchling come out of an egg in this shape tends to make tortoise breeders a bit nervous at first. It reminds me of when I saw my son right after he emerged from his mommie's birth canal-- with a cone shaped head. I ran out of the room screaming...



...where was I? 

Oh yeah, even though the new hatchling had this weird shape, only after a couple of days he straightened out. Here is the jumbo egg hatchling (far left) along with his siblings that are now a month out of their eggs...








A few days later. The flash from the camera has bleached their colors bit. Actually they are fairly red...





Plastrons. All are dark colored.





All of the neonates from this clutch were big and they measured between 5.3 to 5.4 cm one week out of their eggs. The 'jumbo' hatchling was 5.4 at one week post hatching.
In my experience larger eggs take longer to hatch so the extra weeks of incubation didn't worry me. So I would advise others to resist the temptation to start manually opening larger eggs from a clutch when the smaller eggs from that clutch have already hatched.


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## wellington (Feb 21, 2014)

Very nice clutch you have there. Congrats. Nice info for anyone that may be beginners in the egg layer/hatching.


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## terryo (Feb 21, 2014)

Very nice Carl. Cool markings on the one next to the big kid.


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## TortsNTurtles (Feb 21, 2014)

This is great thanks!


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## N2TORTS (Feb 21, 2014)

Great info Carl ...I was going to ask you about this last egg that I just got. No doubt I have seen variances in size and shape (even oblong) within the cherries and Redfoots in my group , but nothing like this? I do however have one gal who is very high domed for a cherry and her eggs are *huge* and babies born with alike higher than norm domed carapace. I hope this one hatches out to see what's in there. 
Congrads on the New hatchlings.........


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## Benjamin (Feb 22, 2014)

Interesting post and very nice tortoises! The forstens tortoises hatch out all spiraled like that.


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## shanu303 (Feb 22, 2014)

really beautiful hatchlings  and congrats....


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## Jacqui (Feb 22, 2014)

What a handsome group. Have you ever kept track on one of these larger egg hatchlings? Do they grow larger or faster after their slower start? Or just the same as normal? Wonder if the females (from large eggs) once they start laying also throw the larger eggs or if it's just a one time fluke with themselves.


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## cdmay (Feb 22, 2014)

Jacqui said:


> What a handsome group. Have you ever kept track on one of these larger egg hatchlings? Do they grow larger or faster after their slower start? Or just the same as normal? Wonder if the females (from large eggs) once they start laying also throw the larger eggs or if it's just a one time fluke with themselves.



Thanks.
I've never kept track of any larger than normal hatchlings. My assumption about why larger eggs take a bit longer to hatch is because of the volume of the material inside the egg. I guess the best analogy would be that a larger chicken takes longer to cook than a smaller one. Of course, this is absolutely a guess on my part.

But then I haven't noticed that larger hatchlings outpace the smaller siblings during the time I've kept them. Although I have observed that smaller neonates from correspondingly smaller adult females do seem to catch up to other hatchlings of the same age. So after a year, they are all about the same size.


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## RonTheTortoise (Apr 23, 2014)

That's amazing!


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## ALDABRAMAN (Apr 23, 2014)

WOW, fantastic pictures!


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