Has it been a year already?

[Yvonne G]

Phae, my middle child (Mep about 50lbs and 26 yrs old), worked pretty hard at building a nest this past week. She pushed and scraped for about a week, ending up with a nice mound about 2' high and about 4' around. She left the nest today, and I dug up 35 eggs, 13 of which were broken. I have to go get some perlite or vermiculite, but for now they are on spaghnum moss. Here is my incubator:

I hope I have better luck this year with the eggs. And little Emmie from last year is still alive, but a real poor eater. I have been able to get her to eat grated zucchini, thawed frozen mixed vegetables, and a bit of red leaf lettuce. She just turns up her nose at anything else.

Yvonne

 

[sendie]

How exciting to have all those eggs! I'll keep my fingers crossed that all of them hatch for you and are happy healthy babies.
Happy birthday to Emmie too!

 

[Candy]

Yvonne, why are some of the eggs smaller than the other? I didn't know tortoises laid that many eggs. That's a lot.

 

[Isa]

Congratulations Yvonne, it is very exciting

 

[Yvonne G]

Different species of tortoise/turtle lay different amount of eggs. An average clutch for the Manouria is around 50 eggs, one clutch a year. The small eggs in the upper left corner are eastern box turtle eggs. The rest of them are all from Phae. This is only her second clutch ever, so the eggs are rather small. As she grows, they will become more uniform and larger.

Yvonne

 

[Tim/Robin]

How exciting. We are hoping to see baby Phae's this year. Fingers are crossed.

 

[Jacqui]

Looks like you had some wonderful excitement. Hope this year is better then last. We want to see a bunch of little guys peaking out of eggs.

 

[Millerlite]

good luck, hope they hatch, keep us updated

 

[Stazz]

WOW yvonne !! SO many eggs, now that is sure seriously exciting Holding thumbs for you that they're fertile! Its raining eggs

 

[jlyoncc1]

Cool! That's a huge nest! I will keep my fingers crossed!

 

[Crazy1]

Yvonne, my fingers are crossed for you too for fertile eggs and lots of hatchlings this year. Congrats on the new eggs. Could you tell us again how long it takes to incubate them?

 

[Yvonne G]

. Could you tell us again how long it takes to incubate them?

About 90 days...sometime less.

Yvonne

 

[Crazy1]

Thanks Yvonne, about 10 days more than my Greeks.

 

[Yvonne G]

I eventually had to toss all of Phae's eggs, as they rotted and molded. However, Medea, my 65lb female has been dropping eggs all over the habitat, two or three at a time since June 22. It has been my experience that dropped eggs usually aren't fertile, but I clean them up and incubate them anyway...18 so far. Some of them are looking pretty good...chalked and firm.

 

[Crazy1]

Congratulations on the chalked eggs, maybe we will see little Meps after all.