Herd is growing!

[Tim/Robin]

The winter months are very exiciting for the hatching of the Pyxis eggs. The adults have slowed to a near stop, but the eggs are alive and well. Here are a few pictures to feed anyones Pyxis craving.
How many can hide in the clump of Sphagnum?

Ah, a head emerges....

Any guesses here? What do we have?

 

[Kristina]

VERY COOL! I love these tortoises, they are one of my absolute favorites ever! I would like a "herd" of my own someday - and I know who to go to

 

[gummybearpoop]

Very nice Tim & Robin!

Is that a brygooi baby?

I sent you an email a while back and never got a reply. Just wondering how you guys and the whole family have been

Take care
Norman

 

[Yvonne G]

That last picture is absolutely amazing. Please explain it. Looks like a tortoise inside an invisible egg shell.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Yeah, is that an invisible egg? What the heck?

 

[Marty333]

Beautiful torts! The last pic kind of creeps me out! But in a good way :O

 

[Torty Mom]

Awesome! That last picture is amazing, I can hardly wait for the explanation.

 

[cueboy007]

Last picture is a baby spider tortoise, what did you do with egg shell? is the baby dead?

 

[moswen]

oh wow, you guys are so lucky! i love the fact that the whole familiy is in on the tortoise thing, i hope my daughter will be as into them too!

lemon and dr.P say hi!

 

[Candy]

Tim/Robyn long time no hear from. How is the new house and is it done now? I'm sure a lot of us on here would love to see pictures of it and the new tortoise enclosures. I'm taking it that these are not the tortoises that I was so interested in a while back right or or they? It's hard to tell in the pictures, but I'm thinking that these are Spider Tortoises. I remember the ones that you posted pictures of a while ago and I thought they were the most beautiful tortoises that I had ever seen, do you still have them and have they breed yet? Nice to see you guys back and I hope everything is well with you and your girls.

 

[coastal]

Its a tortoise abortion, oh NO! Great looking photo, someone must have out grown their hard candy coating now all thats left is the good part.

 

[Tim/Robin]

Thanks for all the comments. We do adore Spiders. Here is what happened to the tortoise in the last picture....

She is doing well, at a week old she is eating on her own and thriving!!

Now as to what happened and how we got that amazing photo! I (Tim) was expecting her to pip any day. I saw a crack in the shell and what appeared to be a pip. I sat and watched for 2 days to see if anything changed. I candled the egg as well but could not tell for certain if the membrane had pulled back or not, it simply looked dark inside the egg. After two days waiting and watching and having lost 2 full term Marginata last year that were dead in the shell, I decided to open the pip site. When I did, I could not see a head. So I continued to open looking for the head. Long story short, I removed the entire shell without breaking the membrane. I still can't believe I did that. So the picture is of her inside the membrane with blood supply still intact. Once I had her out of the shell, she moved. I was shocked. I left her as in the photo surrounded by damp paper towels and with one over the top so the membrane would not dry out. She went back in the incubator and within hours the membrane began to pull back. By the next morning her face was out of the membrane and she was doing ok. What a stressful time. The picture is amazing though, not something you ever see.

Candy, the house is great and nearly completed. The custom tort room is awesome. WE LOVE the views outside.

 

[Laura]

WOW! that is like a Nature special.. i think her name should be Lucky...
are you a surgeon? how the heck did you remove the shell without damaging?
AND keep the bloodsupply intact.. wow....

 

[coreyc]

Wow that's great she is doing good that picture is amazing I would blow it up frame it an hang in your tort room

 

[Missy]

Wow what a cool story. Your torts are beautiful. I would love to see pics of your tort room. I have been planning a tort room in my head if we ever build.

 

[Tim/Robin]

WOW! that is like a Nature special.. i think her name should be Lucky...
are you a surgeon? how the heck did you remove the shell without damaging?
AND keep the bloodsupply intact.. wow....

That is exactly what we have named her. It was very nerve racking taking the shell off. I thought from the look of the membrane she was alive, but she didn't move until I had it all off. She was very Lucky I managed to keep the blood supply intact. She is very special because she is from one of our females that does not lay many eggs. We have only had one other from her.

 

[tortoises101]

I'm glad that Lucky came through! I was holding my breath throughout the story.

 

[moswen]

wow, what a story tim! she is beautiful! i've never seen a baby spider that looks like her (in all my in-experience lol) she is so light! are they all that light when they are first born? lemon and dr.p both have a more yellow tint to their shells. i can't tell from the top, are all her scutes normal? some of them look smaller on the left and others on the right side on the top center row. her shell pattern is odd too. i know some of them have more yellow on their shells than others, but hers looks... like there was a glitch in the machiene that did her paint job?

how awesome of you to be able to do that and still preserve the memebrane. amazing. i can't believe the relief of not having a hard outer shell around the membrane didn't cause it to stretch and tear all on it's own either. if you ever sell her (which i'm sure i'm just talking for no reason right now, i bet you won't!), you better tell me first!! what a fighter!

 

[Tim/Robin]

wow, what a story tim! she is beautiful! i've never seen a baby spider that looks like her (in all my in-experience lol) she is so light! are they all that light when they are first born? lemon and dr.p both have a more yellow tint to their shells. i can't tell from the top, are all her scutes normal? some of them look smaller on the left and others on the right side on the top center row. her shell pattern is odd too. i know some of them have more yellow on their shells than others, but hers looks... like there was a glitch in the machiene that did her paint job?

how awesome of you to be able to do that and still preserve the memebrane. amazing. i can't believe the relief of not having a hard outer shell around the membrane didn't cause it to stretch and tear all on it's own either. if you ever sell her (which i'm sure i'm just talking for no reason right now, i bet you won't!), you better tell me first!! what a fighter!

No Rebekah, they are not all that light. She is the lightest we have hatched. She is from the same mom as Lemon. She does have a couple extra scutes, likely from a higher incubation temp. I incubated her at 86. I have incubated a few at 86 and the majority have extra scutes. The ones at 84 and the one at 82 have not had many extras if any. I think Lucky will stay here for a while!

 

[B K]

Wow that is so awesome.And your web site is Great.