I'm waiting for or resident experts to weigh in. My pancakes don't get enough outdoor time for abrasion, and the adults' are very long and straight now, and their walking seems natural. Some of my 1-2-3 year olds can have terribly misdirected nails, but too young to clip if needed at all.
What...
My bad, I guess, but you made many inferences that aren't that I do not practice in reality. The newspaper is a poor substrate, but my only viable compromise due to the number of cages. In a spare bedroom.
I only spray the paper where there is not any detritus, mostly when the "sun lights" are...
Not all of us can husband in an environment that replicates nature. I spray the clean areas of the newspaper substate with tap water, give them distilled for drinking, and the grid is easy to clean. I have "maternity wards" for them when they do their dance, but they seldom deposit in the...
I have to scavenge metal racks and "concrete mesh" wire to put over the Wall Street Journal bedding. Takes a minute to change the paper. Roll and replace.
Great build there. I had the "hovabators" and found the temp control too meat-ax, and did not like the hotspots. I've had the Helix regulator with the probe that did not seem to work with waterbed or "pig mat" heaters (on an overhead rack on the terrarium). The water bed heaters are great...
INCUBATORS I have an incubator problem: My pancake population is into its third generation of twin egg layers. Thirteen pancakes, nine females, with eleven eggs since last October. About a 65% hatch rate (despite my screw-ups). My incubators are a Styrofoam cooler with an old, domed “parrot egg...
Yes, one day after. I put the egg in vermiculite in a Styrofoam soup bowl-cup on top of a brick inside a Critter Cage with a 3-year-old pancake to prep a second incubator, and the rascal climbed up and in and spilled it. My bad.
Tom, I hoped one of the replies would be yours. A long time nature guide on THE Island told me even a little rotation can be fatal, yet I see videos of sea turtle egg harvesters jostling the eggs around to get to the hatcheries days after the deposits. I "assume" it takes a few days at least...
Please no conjecture or generalities? I cannot find any professional, definitive answer to this question: How many
days can a tortoise egg (pancake in this instance) be "rolled" after deposit, and still have a decent chance at a hatch survival?
When does the embryo start? (I just got back from...
Twenty-four years ago, my hatchling redfoots seemed as stupid as rocks with legs. Still seem that way. Twenty-two years ago, my hatchling brother and sister pancakes seemed pretty clever. Now their grandkids can read The Tortoise and the Hare, but I have to log in online for them.
As far as "lack of room," I have 12 pancakes, separated into threes, and "they like to pancake" at times; plenty of room in my Critter Cages (TM) IMO because they stay in closer proximities by choice.