# What do you do with your eggs?



## Katherine

Just curious for those of you that do not incubate all of your eggs; do you leave them in the ground (unfavorable conditions not conducive to development) or do you dig them up and destroy them somehow? Maybe you dye them for holidays? Or perhaps you have opened a tortoise egg omelet shop? Just curious what everyone else is doing with their unincubated eggs...


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## Nay

It's so funny you ask...
I received 3 eggs from my Leo a week or so ago. I put them in the fridge to show some little tykes that were coming over and figured it's not every day a child gets to see what a tort layed (I actually put them back with Pinkly so they got the 'whole' experience.
Then the question , what to do with them,I have always thrown them out. 
But we asked it at Christmas with 24 people here, and although it seemed they probably wouldn't taste much different than a chicken egg, everyone was creeped out.
They are still in my fridge.
You?
Can I ask if anyone eats them? (Is that hijacking?)Or can we make it part of the answer?
Nay


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## Yvonne G

I have a leopard female who has decided to be a chicken. With no male for a long time, she has now dug three nests. I have the first set of eggs in the incubator just in case, but I tossed the second set. When she nested yet again, I thought I might boil them up to feed to the other tortoises (the ones that eat animal protein). Here's a hint for you. Don't ever boil tortoise eggs. They don't set up. I generally take the boiled eggs out to the different feeding stations and just gently mash them with the palm of my hand. What a mess!!!


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## DesertGrandma

OMG, I have wanted to ask this question for so long and was afraid of getting ridiculed for being too insensitive, haha. We eat chicken eggs so I just couldn't figure out what is the difference, LOL. Baby chicks are just as cute as baby tortoises, IMO. I am anxious to hear comments here too. Your comment about the tortoise omelet shop is just too funny.

O, and I was thinking that leaving them in the ground might tempt the critters to come into the yard more often looking for eggs.

I have an large Emu egg that I got from a friend that had an emu. Have had it for a long time and the grandkids even took it for show and tell once (I used to have two of them, haha).

Before you ask, the Emu egg was blown out, so there is nothing inside it.


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## dmmj

sea turtle eggs are considered a delicacy. Lots of people eat them, I have never eaten any tortoise eggs though, not for any particular reason. I know lots of people feed them to others who eat eggs.


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## Katherine

LOL not the series of responses I was expecting! I personally do not even eat chicken eggs (although I do keep a lovely bunch of egg laying chickens: )) but even for those who do consume chicken eggs the eggs purchased in a grocery store or farmers market are unfertilized eggs... So they would never hatch into a chick even if they had been incubated. Although some areas/cultures will consume fertilized eggs it is not commonplace in the US. The tortoise eggs I am caught in moral dilemma with are fertilized... I am not sure if that would change their eatability? Currently I have been leaving them in the ground knowing the conditions will not allow viability but have just recently started to question the morality of this practice and am looking for a better solution. If omelet shop is the favored solution who is free for brunch tomorrow ; P


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## EricIvins

katherine said:
 

> LOL not the series of responses I was expecting! I personally do not even eat chicken eggs (although I do keep a lovely bunch of egg laying chickens: )) but even for those who do consume chicken eggs the eggs purchased in a grocery store or farmers market are unfertilized eggs... So they would never hatch into a chick even if they had been incubated. Although some areas/cultures will consume fertilized eggs it is not commonplace in the US. The tortoise eggs I am caught in moral dilemma with are fertilized... I am not sure if that would change their eatability? Currently I have been leaving them in the ground knowing the conditions will not allow viability but have just recently started to question the morality of this practice and am looking for a better solution. If omelet shop is the favored solution who is free for brunch tomorrow ; P



Moral dilemma? Incubate them or leave them in the ground - Leopard Eggs have done just fine under the snow........Diapause.......It works well........


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## Katherine

EricIvins said:


> Moral dilemma? Incubate them or leave them in the ground - Leopard Eggs have done just fine under the snow........Diapause.......It works well........



Amazing, thanks for sharing. I am fascinated that leopard eggs did fine in the snow, despite diapause I would not have predicted that- very cool! 

The eggs in question for me are Sulcata eggs. My females lay SO many SO often and I worry about finding responsible homes for all of them so am probing alternatives to incubation. What I did not care to incubate up until now I was leaving in the ground but out of concern that the eggs may begin to develop, or maybe even hatch out and meet uncertain fate in my yard (which seems increasingly feasible given your account of the leopard eggs) I was curious about what others do with UNWANTED eggs. 

I have never seen a hatchling from the nests I have left in the ground and am curious how long it took the leopards left in ground to hatch? So interesting.


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## Tropical Torts

I have another solution! You can give your UNWANTED eggs to me!! Lol


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## Laura

Some chicken eggs ARE fertile.. they just arent developing. Most people i know who have a barn yard of chickens.. have a rooster too.. they just collect daily so no babies.. 
As for Sulcatas eggs.. unless you are able to find good home for them, or doing what Tom does and trying to figure out the best ways to raise them withhis experiments.. the nests should be left alone, or destroyed. :-( 
Or seperate the male/female so at least the eggs arent fertile after a while.


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## Yvonne G

I missed your real question, sorry...

When I had a female sulcata here at the rescue who was digging nest after nest, while waiting to find a new adoptive home, I waited until she was finished dropping the eggs into the hole, and as she started scraping the dirt back in, I took the shovel and chopped up the eggs.


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## Katherine

emysemys said:


> I missed your real question, sorry...
> 
> When I had a female sulcata here at the rescue who was digging nest after nest, while waiting to find a new adoptive home, I waited until she was finished dropping the eggs into the hole, and as she started scraping the dirt back in, I took the shovel and chopped up the eggs.



No apology please- You missed my real question because I didn't actually ask my real question; but rather inquired about series of (i thought) ridiculous solutions to my real question...some of which proved popular  I will likely start digging the nests and doing something similar. I hate hate hate to do it; and I love love love sulcata babies but it feels a tad more responsible than selling/rehoming more than I am capable of taking back should new owners decide they aren't up for the challenge later. I love my tortoises to the moon and wish I had the resources and acreage to provide for thousands of new mouths but try to be reasonable about what I could feasibly care for if they wind up coming home someday.

...And he who feigns eggbaby interest I shall have a half a clutch hatch in feb; so I hope you don't change your mind


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## DesertGrandma

My grandparents always had roosters with their chickens too, so the eggs were fertile. They ate some and sold some. They sometimes had a spot of blood inside, guessing those were the fertile ones?


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## Tom

I incubate most of my eggs, but the ones that are broken get fed to my black throated monitor lizard. So that's what you need Katherine, a whole bunch of 6' long 40 pound monitor lizards


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## Katherine

Tom said:


> I incubate most of my eggs, but the ones that are broken get fed to my black throated monitor lizard. So that's what you need Katherine, a whole bunch of 6' long 40 pound monitor lizards



LOL no thanks. I have a male retic but I keep him on a consistent diet of prekilled rats and rabbits ... Never given him an egg not sure I'd try; wouldn't be much of a meal for him anyways. Want approx 300 extra eggbabies a year??? I'll hook you up...


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## DesertGrandma

Hey, if the eggs were leopard tortoise eggs I would take you up on that. Would love to try hatching out a few myself.


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## Katherine

DesertGrandma said:


> Hey, if the eggs were leopard tortoise eggs I would take you up on that. Would love to try hatching out a few myself.



I usually hatch my leopards : ) I feel better about hatching out leopards as they don't grow as large so I can accommodate many more of them if in the worst scenario they all came back to me. In my experience too leopards are far less aggressive; it would be easier to house more sulcatas if they were not such bullies!


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## DesertGrandma

katherine said:


> DesertGrandma said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hey, if the eggs were leopard tortoise eggs I would take you up on that. Would love to try hatching out a few myself.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I usually hatch my leopards : ) I feel better about hatching out leopards as they don't grow as large so I can accommodate many more of them if in the worst scenario they all came back to me. In my experience too leopards are far less aggressive; it would be easier to house more sulcatas if they were not such bullies!
Click to expand...


Haha, Yeah, that is what I have heard. My leopard is still just a baby. Those are the same reasons I decided to have leopards.


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## Melly-n-shorty

I would think digging them up and throwing them out would be best, or feeding them to another animal. My dogs love chicken eggs mixed with their food.


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## Katherine

Any thoughts on feeding the eggs back to the female who laid them? She did just loose a ton of calcium...


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