Hatching upside down - Help?

[Kbacker13]

My 1st successful egg has been trying to hatch for almost 72 hours now (since pip). It only has legs and a tiny bit of head out, it is upside down. Do I turn it or leave it?

 

[Ink]

@Tom or @Yvonne G should be able to help you.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Here is an older thread with exactly the same question and some hints/opinions: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatching-upside-down.173784/
This story has a happy end, a breeder turned the egg "the right way".

 

[Tom]

My 1st successful egg has been trying to hatch for almost 72 hours now (since pip). It only has legs and a tiny bit of head out, it is upside down. Do I turn it or leave it?

Turn it right side up and add water to the substrate. It should not take 72 hours to hatch. Something is wrong.

 

[wellington]

Keep us posted of the outcome and pics please.

 

[Kbacker13]

UPDATE: Baby hatched, has a VERY large yolk sac and either no eyes or eyes won't open. Keeping it in incubator with high humidity and damp paper towel. Is fairly active, but unsure of what to do next for it's eyes. Would love some advice.

 

[wellington]

Today is the first day it has been hatched correct?
Maybe give it until tomorrow and see how the eyes are
If they still don't look right post a pic and we can help.

 

[zovick]

UPDATE: Baby hatched, has a VERY large yolk sac and either no eyes or eyes won't open. Keeping it in incubator with high humidity and damp paper towel. Is fairly active, but unsure of what to do next for it's eyes. Would love some advice.

You could take a cotton swab and soak it with lukewarm water, then bathe the eyes and see if they will open. Usually if a baby tortoise has no eyes whatsoever, the eye sockets are very sunken in looking. Are you noticing that?

Additionally, you can try to give the baby a drink by putting water in a very small container and just tilting the cotainer up to the tortoise's chin enough to make it realize there is water available. If you are careful, you can do this without lifting the tortoise up at all so as not to disturb the yolk sac. I do NOT recommend trying to soak the tortoise while it still has a yolk sac.

Sometimes when I have had babies with huge yolk sacs, I have placed them into little margarine tubs lined with plastic wrap or egg cartons also lined with plastic wrap. Not sure about leaving the baby on damp paper towels for an extended period. It might cause the yolk sac to rupture if too much water was absorbed. Just a precautionary word there.

 

[SinLA]

can you share pics?