# Do these eggs live?



## NTB (Jun 29, 2014)

My Salcutta eggs are 80-90 days old. There is no sign of hatching. How do I know if the eggs are still viable?


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Jun 29, 2014)

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ . You can candle the eggs but one of the biggest problem in breeding is when do I give up and through out the eggs ! Nobody wants to give up ! 
And if you break the egg and find a dead body you say to your self if only I had waited one more week . I know this isn't the answer you wanted but it's the best answer I can give and I been doing this for over 13 yrs . 


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum


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## Tom (Jun 29, 2014)

Leave them alone. They take a minimum of 90 days to incubate and sometimes go over 100 days.

What temperature have you got them at? Give us more details on your incubator, substrate and humidity maintenance.


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## NTB (Jun 30, 2014)

Tom said:


> Leave them alone. They take a minimum of 90 days to incubate and sometimes go over 100 days.
> 
> What temperature have you got them at? Give us more details on your incubator, substrate and humidity maintenance.


okay, so that is one of the things I was wondering: How long can an incubation period go. It is good to hear it may be another 2 weeks. I'll be patient. They were in the ground about 2 feet down until just the other day when I dug them up, put them in a box with damp dirt and perlite in a back bedroom that maintains about 85-90 degrees.


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## Tom (Jun 30, 2014)

If they were in the ground then it has not been warm enough to incubate yet anywhere in the US. Unless you are somewhere tropical, you incubation period just started the day they went into that warm room. Are you really sure that room ALWAYS stays in that range? Because just a little over that, even one degree, and you could get still borns or serious birth defects. Any cooler than that and they could fail to develop. Its a fairly narrow range. I suggest an incubator. The insulation will resist temperature range better, and the thermostat will prevent the temp from dropping too low on any unusually cool nights over the next three months. I would also be concerned about any spikes in your high temperature once we really get into summer and the daytime highs begin to skyrocket.

I would not use ANY perlite for incubation. When they hatch they will eat some of the media. Perlite can seriously mess them up. I had a third of a batch babies fail to thrive because of it. Some of them died and necropsy revealed that their intestines were lined with crumbled perlite.

Do you know about brooder boxes and what to do with all that once they pip?


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## NTB (Jun 30, 2014)

Tom said:


> If they were in the ground then it has not been warm enough to incubate yet anywhere in the US. Unless you are somewhere tropical, you incubation period just started the day they went into that warm room. Are you really sure that room ALWAYS stays in that range? Because just a little over that, even one degree, and you could get still borns or serious birth defects. Any cooler than that and they could fail to develop. Its a fairly narrow range. I suggest an incubator. The insulation will resist temperature range better, and the thermostat will prevent the temp from dropping too low on any unusually cool nights over the next three months. I would also be concerned about any spikes in your high temperature once we really get into summer and the daytime highs begin to skyrocket.
> 
> I would not use ANY perlite for incubation. When they hatch they will eat some of the media. Perlite can seriously mess them up. I had a third of a batch babies fail to thrive because of it. Some of them died and necropsy revealed that their intestines were lined with crumbled perlite.
> 
> Do you know about brooder boxes and what to do with all that once they pip?


okay, so I am off to find an incubator tomorrow. I have read online about brooder boxes, but tell me what you consider the most important aspects are.


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## Tom (Jul 1, 2014)

As soon as the eggs begin to pip, I add a little bit of water to the media to increase humidity and moisture a bit. This helps them get out of the egg. Once they step foot out of their egg, I move them to a brooder box. I do not leave them in the incubator because they eat the media. I use plastic shoe boxes or empty spring mix tubs for brooder boxes. I line the bottom with damp plain white paper towels and I put their rinsed egg shell and some greens in there with them. Every day I put the hatchlings in some warm shallow water while I switch tubs and put in fresh paper towels and greens. I put no more than 6 babies per shoe box. I keep the boxes either in the incubator or in a warm closed chamber. They don't need any lights or thermal gradients at this point. After about a week, they absorb their yolk sac and the umbilical scar closes up. At this point I move them to a proper baby enclosure with the right temps, lighting and substrate. I soak the babies everyday in an area of my backyard and I put the tubs about halfway in the sun. More in the sun on cooler days, less in the sun on hotter days. This gives the babies some UV while they get their daily soak. I mostly keep the babies in their closed chambers where humidity and temperatures are good for them. As they gain size I put them outside in heavily planted sunning enclosures for longer and longer periods of time, but babies don't need or benefit from long hours out in the hot dry air here. Once they are 5-6 inches I leave them out all day and bring them in at night to sleep in their humid closed chambers. Once they are around 8-10 inches, I move them outside full time with a proper heated night box to sleep in.


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## NTB (Jul 1, 2014)

Tom said:


> As soon as the eggs begin to pip, I add a little bit of water to the media to increase humidity and moisture a bit. This helps them get out of the egg. Once they step foot out of their egg, I move them to a brooder box. I do not leave them in the incubator because they eat the media. I use plastic shoe boxes or empty spring mix tubs for brooder boxes. I line the bottom with damp plain white paper towels and I put their rinsed egg shell and some greens in there with them. Every day I put the hatchlings in some warm shallow water while I switch tubs and put in fresh paper towels and greens. I put no more than 6 babies per shoe box. I keep the boxes either in the incubator or in a warm closed chamber. They don't need any lights or thermal gradients at this point. After about a week, they absorb their yolk sac and the umbilical scar closes up. At this point I move them to a proper baby enclosure with the right temps, lighting and substrate. I soak the babies everyday in an area of my backyard and I put the tubs about halfway in the sun. More in the sun on cooler days, less in the sun on hotter days. This gives the babies some UV while they get their daily soak. I mostly keep the babies in their closed chambers where humidity and temperatures are good for them. As they gain size I put them outside in heavily planted sunning enclosures for longer and longer periods of time, but babies don't need or benefit from long hours out in the hot dry air here. Once they are 5-6 inches I leave them out all day and bring them in at night to sleep in their humid closed chambers. Once they are around 8-10 inches, I move them outside full time with a proper heated night box to sleep in.


Thank you so much. That is super clear and helpful


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