# Whose is it.



## Anyfoot (Oct 9, 2016)

I have a redfoot egg from a clutch of 9 hatching on day 117. 
We are not 100% sure who's it is. 
Princess lays clutches of 7 to 10 and I only ever get 1 egg hatch from her clutches. Her babies are always very dark and lack the vibrant colors. 
Then we have Beatrice who lays very large eggs but only ever 3 to 5 in a clutch. We've never had any of hers hatch, we also seem to have problems with Beatrice's eggs breaking upon laying. 
Anyway, Dawn is convinced this clutch of 9 belongs to Beatrice, when they were laid she saw Beatrice walking away from the nest and straight for a huge drink of water. She never actually saw these eggs being layed. 
I think they are princesses because of the high count of eggs and they are smaller eggs. In this photo you can see the clutch of 9 at the top, then you can see the 4 larger eggs from another 2 clutches of Beatrice's. These 2 clutches were 4 and 4 but 3 and 1 broke.
Btw, Beatrice is very very concave on the plastron, could it be she will always have trouble laying? 

Sooo I'm thinking if this baby is dark it's princesses, if it's full of color it's Beatrices. Beatrice has some serious amounts of limb scales in bright yellow. 
I candled these 9 eggs about 3 days ago because I noticed they were getting dark patches, I had convinced myself all 9 were duds. 

Sheesh, hope you all followed that.


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## MPRC (Oct 9, 2016)

I hate the waiting game. We need hourly updates!


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## N2TORTS (Oct 9, 2016)

Swwwwweeet!.....very nice~


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## wellington (Oct 9, 2016)

I'm going to vote for Beatrice. Keep us updated on your best guess once it's hatched.


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## Anyfoot (Oct 9, 2016)

I'm hoping it's Beatrice. 
Just had a quick look at this in earthly hour of 5am before I set off to work. The head is just showing, and looks to have color.
We will see tonight after work hopefully. Something to look forward to, today will drag now, that's for sure.


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## Anyfoot (Oct 10, 2016)

Mmmm, I'm still going princess baby. This is what I came home too. 
Think there is another pipping too.


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## Gillian M (Oct 10, 2016)

Anyfoot said:


> Mmmm, I'm still going princess baby. This is what I came home too.
> Think there is another pipping too.
> 
> View attachment 189180


Oh, that's so cute!


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## Anyfoot (Oct 11, 2016)

She's nearly there, got some shell still on the carapace. 
I'm not sure who is the mother yet, this one seems to have color though. 
Do they lighten up as they grow?

There's another 3 hatching too.


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## klawran1 (Oct 11, 2016)

I love hatching babies! Hourly updates should be a requirement.


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## Anyfoot (Oct 12, 2016)

Well, one of the others is out first. 
Should I help the one with the shell stuck to it? I did spray her yesterday but it's still stuck.


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## MPRC (Oct 12, 2016)

If it's just stuck on top of her I would help - but I'm no expert. 

Are we still voting they are Princess babies?


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## Anyfoot (Oct 12, 2016)

LaDukePhoto said:


> If it's just stuck on top of her I would help - but I'm no expert.
> 
> Are we still voting they are Princess babies?


Dawn just sprayed her and pulled the shell off. 
I'm starting to think Dawn is rrrrrr... rrrrrr.....right and they are princesses. There seems to be a lot of color on limbs. Let's see what the others come out like, then I'll get some good photos with the camera and not the phone.


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## N2TORTS (Oct 12, 2016)

LQQKing ...good my friend~


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## klawran1 (Oct 12, 2016)

So precious!


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## Anyfoot (Oct 13, 2016)

Latest photo Dawn just sent me. 4 out and another Pipping.


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## Anyfoot (Oct 14, 2016)

All 5 out now, with no signs of the last 4 eggs Pipping. 
I've tried to take some good photos and failed. My PC has zero space left on it to download from our camera. Last 2 photos are from my phone taking pictures of the PC screen looking at the camera pictures via the SD card. 
Where there's a will there's a way. 

Do northerns have dark on the plastrons at the neonate stage?


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## Yvonne G (Oct 14, 2016)

Anyfoot said:


> Well, one of the others is out first.
> Should I help the one with the shell stuck to it? I did spray her yesterday but it's still stuck.
> View attachment 189287



I usually pick off the shell pieces that are stuck (except for if they're on the bottom) because the membrane dries and it's hard to get off after it dries.


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## cdmay (Oct 15, 2016)

Yvonne G said:


> I usually pick off the shell pieces that are stuck (except for if they're on the bottom) because the membrane dries and it's hard to get off after it dries.



I gently wash off stuck eggshells for the same reason. Once dry, the membrane becomes like glue.
Nice batch of younguns' Anyfoot!


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## Anyfoot (Oct 17, 2016)

These guys have just about absorbed all their yolks, so I just gave them a soak and into the vivarium for now. They will be in the new enclosure on Friday when I'm sure it's all set correctly.
Anyway, here are some photos.
We think they belong to Beatrice too, they seem to have a lot of scales and head color like her,oh yeah, she's digging a nest as we speak.
The last photo shows a comparison to one of princesses hatchlings, you can see how dark hers are.


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## Gillian M (Oct 17, 2016)

Anyfoot said:


> She's nearly there, got some shell still on the carapace.
> I'm not sure who is the mother yet, this one seems to have color though.
> Do they lighten up as they grow?
> 
> ...


Adorable!


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## Anyfoot (Oct 30, 2016)

Mmmm. Just had another shock. 2 more from this clutch are hatching. So first 5 were 117 days and these 2 are 137 days with 2 more eggs left in this clutch. 
Is it normal to have a 20 day hatch date difference within the same clutch?


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## Anyfoot (Oct 31, 2016)

Well the ninth egg just pipped. 
So out of this clutch of 9 eggs, 5 hatch on days 117/118 and 4 hatch on days 137/138. 

What's that all about?


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## Anyfoot (Nov 2, 2016)

Well the last 4 are all out. Just amazes me how different the head patterns are. 
The last one out has got a really cool pattern on its nose.


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## Anyfoot (Nov 2, 2016)

This is a shot of the head patterns of 4 from the first 5 that hatched.


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## MPRC (Nov 2, 2016)

So cute! Look at that pattern!


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## Anyfoot (Nov 5, 2016)

After talking to Carl about redfoots and eggs my conclusion is these 9 belong to my female princess who seems to lay large clutch counts of small eggs. My female Beatrice lays small clutches of extremely large eggs. 
As a female reaches maturity she may lay small infertile eggs, some females will carry on laying small sized eggs that are fertile as they mature. Some females will lay eggs that get bigger and bigger until she reaches full maturity and her max egg size. 
It's very unlikely that once a female lays larger eggs that she will then revert back to laying small eggs. For this reason they must be Princesses, also this means one of my northern males is now mature enough to keep his end of the bargain up, which one of the 2 I'll never know. 
My very old cherryhead Edna layed a clutch of 3 this morning, they were of a medium sized egg, so that counts her out too. Soon I will split my 1.2.0 cherries into there own enclosure. 
Earlier this week we found 2 eggs loose on the surface that had been eaten by the other adults. I'm assuming this is one of my other northerns just coming into maturity and not yet mastered the nesting thing. Clarice is the culprit, she's been acting wierd lately and got a bit boisterous towards the others a couple week back, I guess she was claiming a patch ready to lay. She's a big girl too, think she's my largest female now, grown about 4" in the 2 yrs I've had her, heading towards 13" now. 
Hope she gets massive


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## Anyfoot (Nov 6, 2016)

Ok so today I've moved the last 4 out of the brooder box and into there new enclosure.
Some photos for you guys to peak at. 
#5 shows the new 4.
#6 shows the full clutch of 9.
#7 shows the black sheep of the family, he's from the last clutch. Same mother.


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