Egg yolk.

Anyfoot

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Hi all.
Do all Tortoise eggs, fertile and infertile have a yolk?

I ask because last year I cracked some of my infertile hingeback eggs open after months, there was a transparent whitish gue in there that stank rotten.(no yolk) Was this the yolk that eventually went rotten and turned into gue or was there never a yolk?

3 days ago one of my redfoot torts layed a clutch of 3. She dug right next to a stone, 1 egg broke, it had a yolk. Does this mean it was fertile?

Thanks.

Craig.
 

LRZtorts

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They should all have a yolk whether they are fertile or infertile. I know with chickens on a very rare occasion you may get a hen that lays her first egg and it is tiny and doesn't have a yolk, this may be the same case with tortoises every once in awhile.
 

Anyfoot

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They should all have a yolk whether they are fertile or infertile. I know with chickens on a very rare occasion you may get a hen that lays her first egg and it is tiny and doesn't have a yolk, this may be the same case with tortoises every once in awhile.
Thank you. Chicken eggs was the only logical comparison I could come up with.

Soooooo

Going back to my hingeback eggs.

I only had these torts a few months before they laid the first clutches. When I got them toenails were missing, beaks were overgrown and the last owner said the eggs they laid where always a deformed shape,(long and thin), and they were only on 1/2" depth of substrate.
Could it be possible that a previous bad diet could produce eggs with no yolk.
The eggs they laid after I had them a while, looked perfectly shaped to look at, they also for the first time had the privilege to be able to dig a nest.
 

hingeback

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That means mine were deformed? There were no yolk when they broke. The goo was dark green moss colour. How long and thin was yours?
 

Anyfoot

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That means mine were deformed? There were no yolk when they broke. The goo was dark green moss colour. How long and thin was yours?
Mine wasn't. The previous owner said the eggs were deformed when she had them.
 
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