Candling Sulcata eggs

[Patricia-C]

Can anyone tell me when to candle Sulcata Tortoise eggs please? The eggs were laid one week ago.

 

[wellington]

@Tom

 

[Tom]

Can anyone tell me when to candle Sulcata Tortoise eggs please? The eggs were laid one week ago.

You can candle them at any time, though I recommend leaving them mostly alone. Even after candling, I'd let them keep incubating until they rot or pop.

You should start to see a reddish or orange-ish color after a couple of weeks. Infertile eggs will be clear. After 3-4 weeks, you should be able to see veining.

How have you set them up for incubation? Are you using damp vermiculite? What is the incubation temperature? Neret France?

Here is some helpful info:

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

Sudan Sulcatas (This never gets old...)

My very first clutch of true 100% pure Sudan sulcatas is now hatching. I don't care how many times I see this, it just never gets old. I dig up the eggs carefully place them in my prepared shoe boxes, watch the temperature in the incubator and tend to them for months, and then... When that...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Patricia-C]

Many thanks for your help. Yes the eggs are incubating and have been since our female laid them. Yes we are in France, the very centre. We hatched three eggs 2.1/2 years ago after 95 days (3 out of 17 eggs). Last year she laid 21 eggs but none hatched. We are not sure whether they were infertile or that the incubator was not working. We bought another incubator for this year and just thought if we candled the eggs we would not have to wait so long to find out if they were fertile are not.

 

[zovick]

Many thanks for your help. Yes the eggs are incubating and have been since our female laid them. Yes we are in France, the very centre. We hatched three eggs 2.1/2 years ago after 95 days (3 out of 17 eggs). Last year she laid 21 eggs but none hatched. We are not sure whether they were infertile or that the incubator was not working. We bought another incubator for this year and just thought if we candled the eggs we would not have to wait so long to find out if they were fertile are not.

As a rule, as Tom said, you will not be able to see any sign of fertility until roughly three weeks to four weeks after the eggs have been put into your incubator (assuming an incubation temp of 87-88F). At that time, you will see a tiny red "blood spot" usually with a single circular vein going around it (a "halo"). As time goes by, the blood vessels become more numerous and more visible. Also you will begin to see the tiny tortoise embryo beginning to take shape and replace the blood spot.

In my experience, the embryos become light sensitive and will sometimes move when the light hits them.

For candling, I used a tiny Maglite flashlight about 3" long. Also note that the newer ones with LED light bulbs are not really satisfactory for candling eggs as the LED bulbs are too bright.

 

[Patricia-C]

As a rule, as Tom said, you will not be able to see any sign of fertility until roughly three weeks to four weeks after the eggs have been put into your incubator (assuming an incubation temp of 87-88F). At that time, you will see a tiny red "blood spot" usually with a single circular vein going around it (a "halo"). As time goes by, the blood vessels become more numerous and more visible. Also you will begin to see the tiny tortoise embryo beginning to take shape and replace the blood spot.

In my experience, the embryos become light sensitive and will sometimes move when the light hits them.

For candling, I used a tiny Maglite flashlight about 3" long. Also note that the newer ones with LED light bulbs are not really satisfactory for candling eggs as the LED bulbs are too bright.

Thank you for the information.