As the title says, i don't know what to do . The female hasn't really shown any signs of laying behavior until now. This female has been with a male this year, not sure if they linked up before i separated them but i don't want to take the risk of throwing good eggs out. Please help, is there anything i can put the eggs in while i await for the incubator to arrive? I ordered a hova bator since my last incubator no longer works, it should be here between the 16th-19th, i'm just not sure what to do until it gets here.
EMERGENCY, female box turtle laying eggs and i dont have an incubator
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I used to put my box and spotted turtle eggs in a peanut butter jar with about an inch of slightly damp soil, then put the top on the jar very loosely and put them on top of my refrigerator. Once a week, I took the top off and put a few drops of water on the eggs, then put the top back on and put them back on the refrigerator. Not very scientific, but it works.
I can't tell you how many turtle eggs I hatched that way in my youth. I even hatched my first two radiated tortoises the same way.
Turtle eggs don't need as high a temp to successfully hatch as tortoise eggs, so that is one reason this technique could be used successfully.
Thanks for the advice! Would putting them in a deli cup with vermiculite and burrying them where she laid them in the enclosure be a bad idea? I'd poke a few air holes in the top. My house gets pretty cold, like 67-68 at night, whereas the enclosures tend to stay around 73, i should mention that she's being temporarily kept inside in a 6'x2'x2' as our backyard is undergoing renovations, so i can't just leave them in the ground outside or else i would've done that.
Edit: i could also put a CHE in the cage near the eggs to keep them at a consistent tempature, and then put a temp and hygrometer inside of the container to make sure they aren't getting too hot or cold. Just not sure if that is a valid method.
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I guess you could bury them in the deli cup in the enclosure but first I would check the temp on top of your refrigerator. It is probably warmer than your house's ambient air temp. I would say any temp over 70F would be adequate.
If buried in the enclosure, you would need to be sure the turtle couldn't disturb the cup with the eggs in it. IMHO, the CHE and hygrometer plus thermometer in with the eggs are unnecessary, but do whatever you want.
I just checked the top of the fridge and it is reading 76.8, meanwhile the room they're in is 68.6, so that method definitely seems to work! I've got them at 81% humidity and at 76.8F. Hopefully i get the incubator sooner rather than later and i will be sure to update how incubation goes. Thanks for the advice!!
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When you get the Hovabator be sure to run it for a few days in the exact location where it will be used to check that the temp inside it is stabilized at the reading you want before you put the eggs in it. I would use no more than 78-80 degrees, but others may have different opinions.
Also, I am not sure exactly which Hovabator you ordered, but the ones I have are quite primitive and maintain their inside temperature by use of a bimetal wafer rather than a thermostat with actual temperature settings. This means that one must experiment with the wafer setting to get the temp one wants. These wafer ones will only keep the inside temp correct if the air in the room where they are being used stays at a relatively constant temperature. IE, if you decide to move a Hovabator like mine from one part of the house to another (like from a warmer room to a cooler room or upstairs to a basement), you must recalibrate the inside temp to make sure it remains at the temp you want.
Another point which you may or may not already know is that turtle eggs should not be turned or rotated once they begin incubation. I always mark the top of the egg gently with an "X" in pencil to be sure that the orientation of the egg stays the same in case I need to move my eggs from one container to another for some reason.
If all the above Hovabator info is too confusing or too much trouble, just put the eggs atop the refrigerator as previously discussed and all will be fine.
Good luck!
Where were they laid? I find it best to simply leave the eggs in the nest until you are ready to incubate them. I've left sulcata eggs in the ground where the female laid them in winter for two months before digging them up and getting 100% hatch rates.
If the eggs were laid in the enclosure, I simply cover the area with a sturdy metal basket of some sort and use tent stakes to hold the basket in place. This allows the weather and sunshine to work its magic on the in-ground nest. Its really the best environment you could offer. Just don't leave it so long that the eggs hatch and the babies are in a cage in full sun where they will cook in minutes upon hatching.
Will do! I'm going to be using a hovabator 1602N. I just bought the one that already comes with the vermiculite and deli cups, the reptile kit. Fairly sure this one also uses the bimetal wafers you're talking about, but i'll figure it out!
I did also buy a thermostat to go with it too to ensure that it stays at the proper temps, as well as a few thermometers/hygrometers just so i can make sure that its accurate. I'll be sure to confirm that it maintains the proper temps and humidity for a few days before i rush to get the eggs in there!
I already marked the eggs as i was grabbing them out of the enclosure, just in case! 🙂
Thanks for all the help! Definitely will be more prepared next time.
Well, unfortunately she chose to lay the eggs right after we had moved her into her indoor enclosure temporarily. Our backyard is undergoing renovations (supposedly they were putting fiber lines in, then proceeded to cut into a water line and now the whole backyard is a wreck.) I would've probably just left them in her enclosure, but she chose to lay them right by the water dish, and so i was afraid that when i go to clean the dish out the eggs would be in the way. Just going to hope for the best!
In this case, Zovick's suggestions are the way to go. He speaks from experience.
Please keep us posted. We love hatchling pics!
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