Babies and an egg

[Lybingham]

We adopted a female desert tortoise this last spring. We already have another tortoise in our back yard. The people we got her from thought she may have already been bred by their male. We wondered if that was true because she seemed to be digging a small egg hole a few places. She ended up digging a very large whole to get in away from the heat. Today we were digging, preparing for a block wall to be built. We uncovered three babies and an egg. They were about five inches under ground. I don’t know what to do for them now. Help!

 

[JT Tortoise]

That super cool! I would bring the babies indoors and raise them up as it starting to get cold outdoors here in SoCal and “candle” the last egg with a flashlight to see if there anything in there, if so definitely place it in a incubator if you have one

 

[Lybingham]

They aren’t even moving. I don’t know if they are even alive. Do I just keep them warm and see what happens? They were in cold very damp dirt. Egg shells still around one.

 

[JT Tortoise]

Are their yolk sac fully absorb on the ones that hatched out? Looks like you’ll have to place them all in an incubator setup as they need and the warmth and humidity to finish hatching and absorb their yolk sac. You can give them a soak in warm water on the ones that are fully hatched out and yolk sac absorbed. Do you happen to have any pictures?

 

[COmtnLady]

@Tom @Yvonne G

 

[Lybingham]

Are their yolk sac fully absorb on the ones that hatched out? Looks like you’ll have to place them all in an incubator setup as they need and the warmth and humidity to finish hatching and absorb their yolk sac. You can give them a soak in warm water on the ones that are fully hatched out and yolk sac absorbed. Do you happen to have any pictures?

Thank you so much for answering my needs. I will take pictures tomorrow. One still has the yolk sac. Two of them don’t have the yellow yolk sack but they still have red where the sac would have been (what looks like blood). I’m hoping that is normal to absorb that. Can I soak the two? I will also be purchasing an incubator tomorrow. The egg is pretty heavy so I know it isn’t empty. Should they be moving?

 

[JT Tortoise]

The two that have a little red should be fine and in a couple weeks their plastron will be fully closed. After soaking those two you can try to offer them food once they’re warmed up the one still hatching out or still need the warmth and humidity and won’t be moving as much until it’s yolk absorbed. Once you get the incubator put the unhatched egg, and the one that is still hatching out in a tupperware with moist vermiculite as a substrate and you should be good to go.

 

[Tom]

We adopted a female desert tortoise this last spring. We already have another tortoise in our back yard. The people we got her from thought she may have already been bred by their male. We wondered if that was true because she seemed to be digging a small egg hole a few places. She ended up digging a very large whole to get in away from the heat. Today we were digging, preparing for a block wall to be built. We uncovered three babies and an egg. They were about five inches under ground. I don’t know what to do for them now. Help!

Read this thread. It will answer all of your questions. The babies need to be in a brooder box and the egg in an incubator.

If they are alive, they would be in brumation right now. Once they get warmed up, they should become active.

How To Incubate Eggs And Start Hatchlings

I put my eggs in a plastic shoe box with a lid on it and put the shoe box in the incubator. You can drill a couple of very small holes around the top of the container, but not on the lid. I use vermiculite as an incubation media. I mix it in a 1 : 1 ratio with water by weight for Sulcatas and...

tortoiseforum.org

Is the other tortoise in the back yard also a DT? Are you keeping them separate?

 

[Lybingham]

Read this thread. It will answer all of your questions. The babies need to be in a brooder box and the egg in an incubator.

If they are alive, they would be in brumation right now. Once they get warmed up, they should become active.

How To Incubate Eggs And Start Hatchlings

I put my eggs in a plastic shoe box with a lid on it and put the shoe box in the incubator. You can drill a couple of very small holes around the top of the container, but not on the lid. I use vermiculite as an incubation media. I mix it in a 1 : 1 ratio with water by weight for Sulcatas and...

tortoiseforum.org

Is the other tortoise in the back yard also a DT? Are you keeping them separate?

Yes, they both are desert tortoises. They are brumating in separate covered boxes in our shed.

 

[Tom]

Yes, they both are desert tortoises. They are brumating in separate covered boxes in our shed.

Our weather is too inconsistent for outdoor brumation here. Check this out for more info:

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

Also, they should never live as pairs. DTs are one of the worst species to do this with. They need separate enclosures when they wake up from brumation.

 

[Lybingham]

 

[Tom]

Any movement? Are they alive?

 

[Lybingham]

Any movement? Are they alive?

No movement yet. I soaked the two with no egg sac. Someone is going to loan me an incubator later today. Meanwhile I am going to put a heating pad under their box to warm it up. I will watch the temperature very closely to keep it at the mid 80s.

 

[Lybingham]

No movement yet. I soaked the two with no egg sac. Someone is going to loan me an incubator later today. Meanwhile I am going to put a heating pad under their box to warm it up. I will watch the temperature very closely to keep it at the mid 80s.

I didn’t realize I sent two sets of photos.
I am assuming from your reply, I should have seen movement by now. I’m trying to resign myself to the fact they might not be alive. However, it was said they might stay underground, even after hatching. They are so cute and don’t look dead. Whatever that looks like.

 

[Tom]

I didn’t realize I sent two sets of photos.
I am assuming from your reply, I should have seen movement by now. I’m trying to resign myself to the fact they might not be alive. However, it was said they might stay underground, even after hatching. They are so cute and don’t look dead. Whatever that looks like.

Due to the way they are all tucked in, I think they are alive. They might just need some time and warmth to "wake up". Do you see or feel any movement when you touch their legs or heads?

 

[Zeus25]

Are they ok? I’ve been following hoping that they woke up x

 

[Lybingham]

I didn’t feel or see movement. I even moved their legs out some to see if they pulled back in but no. I found a friend that has an incubator. She had them and the egg in the incubator. The one baby that still had the eggsac was not alive. Unfortunately, the other two were not alive this morning, even if they were yesterday. She did see a baby inside the egg but it also had no movement. Will give it a day or so and see if there is anything with that. So sad but won’t go through that again!

 

[Lybingham]

Our weather is too inconsistent for outdoor brumation here. Check this out for more info:

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

Also, they should never live as pairs. DTs are one of the worst species to do this with. They need separate enclosures when they wake up from brumation.

I will be taking care of that. They will not be sharing space or enclosures anymore.
The egg is still in the incubator. I have attached a photo of the egg being candled. My friend said there still is no movement but there are veins.

 

[Tom]

I will be taking care of that. They will not be sharing space or enclosures anymore.
The egg is still in the incubator. I have attached a photo of the egg being candled. My friend said there still is no movement but there are veins.

That egg is looking good. Make sure you don't rotate it.

 

[Lybingham]

She knows that. I didn’t know so it was rotated. I only had it for a day after finding it in the ground. I hope I didn’t cause it to have something wrong.