# Russian tortoise Hatchling with dead twin



## TKCARDANDCOIN (Mar 30, 2014)

I just had a Russian Tortoise hatch about a hour ago.He has a twin attached to his yolk sac and I am curious to see if anyone else has ever seen this?The bigger hatchling is normal size and the twin is about the size of a fat grain of rice.

I am wondering if it will fall off by itself when the yolk sac is absorbed.I will try and post a picture.Thanks,Tom.


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## wellington (Mar 30, 2014)

Wow, would love to see the pic. Curious to know if anyone else ever had this happen too.


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## TKCARDANDCOIN (Mar 30, 2014)

I put a picture up but it must have been removed.I posted the topic twice by accident.I will try and reload the photo.




TKCARDANDCOIN said:


> I just had a Russian Tortoise hatch about a hour ago.He has a twin attached to his yolk sac and I am curious to see if anyone else has ever seen this?The bigger hatchling is normal size and the twin is about the size of a fat grain of rice.
> 
> I am wondering if it will fall off by itself when the yolk sac is absorbed.I will try and post a picture.Thanks,Tom.


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## christinaland128 (Mar 30, 2014)

Wow that's wild!


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## wellington (Mar 30, 2014)

It's hard to tell in the pic. How can you tell it is another tortoise?


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## TKCARDANDCOIN (Mar 30, 2014)

I know it is hard to tell from the photo but if you could see it in person you would be amazed!I magnified it with a 10x loupe and you can see a carapace and even his eyes.For some reason he passed away early on in development.The Tortoise that it is attached to is doing great and even trying to eat some fresh greens.I am keeping him in the incubator for now and will keep a good eye on him.


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## wellington (Mar 30, 2014)

Wow, that's sad, but amazing too. Thanks for explaining what you can see.


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## Star-of-India (Mar 31, 2014)

Very cool.


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## T33's Torts (Mar 31, 2014)

Most tortoises that have twins in the egg, are connected by (sharing) a very large egg sac. I'm thinking that one of the twins (obviously) failed to completely develope, thus leaving its remains attached to his twin. That said, I'd assume that once the yolk is absorbed, he will fall off.


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## TKCARDANDCOIN (Mar 31, 2014)

I hope he falls off.


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## ascott (Mar 31, 2014)

> I hope he falls off.



I knew a lady who had two thumbs on her one hand....it was a normal thumb and then a little fully formed nub thumb...so weird....

Hmm, I know, had nothing to do with this but it reminded me of the nub thumb....reproduction is truly wild...


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## TKCARDANDCOIN (Apr 1, 2014)

I ended up tying off the smaller one and everything seems to be going well.He is eating and is very alert.I am hoping for the best!This is the first time this has ever happened to me.


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## erdavis (Apr 1, 2014)

I actually recently (within the past 2-3 days) was looking on Instagram of sulcata hashtags and saw this same situation but they were both born alive. They were not connected at the time they hatched i dont think. One was very obviously smaller and eventually died. 
I was going to say to tie it off with string and let it fall off. Nowadays with kids born with a extra boneless nub finger they often don't even do surgery, just tie it off and wait for it to fall off. I'm can't tell where the twin is connected in the photo, but if it's to the actual tort I would just watch for infection after it falls off. 

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## TKCARDANDCOIN (Apr 2, 2014)

It fell off during the night and everything is looking great.I cleaned him up and put neosporin on it and he is eating!


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## erdavis (Apr 4, 2014)

Sounds like great news to me! 

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## Jlant85 (Apr 8, 2014)

christinaland128 said:


> Wow that's wild!



lol when i was reading this post the discovery channel wild animal show popped in my head... those were the good old days... when watching documentaries on animals is all they showed on that channel...


but man sorry for your lost! Wish both came out fine... would have been awesome!!!!


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