Incubating a broken egg

[biochemnerd808]

One of my female Russian tortoises laid eggs today. Unfortunately, she broke one of them, but the yolk was still intact in the dirt.


I very carefully spooned it up and brought it inside, since I remember seeing a thread here about an external incubation in saran wrap. (Here: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatching-tortoise-without-the-shell.167272/ ) @Arizona Sulcata - any advice?

The tortoise egg shell was too broken to use, and the egg white was too dirty. But the yolk was OK. I rinsed it carefully, to get the dirt off (hoping to prevent mold or contamination).

We have chickens, so I took a fresh egg, removed the yolk and most of the egg white, and placed the tortoise yolk inside. My hope is that the embryo can absorb calcium from the chicken egg. I placed it in a little cup and covered it with saran wrap.


Now we will see if anything happens. Washing the yolk may have ruined it.

I would love any advice or experience other folks have had with this!!

 

[wellington]

Oh man, I don't think it will work but how cool if it does.
Without the whole insides though, Im afraid you will just get a rotten egg.
Keep us posted though

 

[biochemnerd808]

Oh man, I don't think it will work but how cool if it does.
Without the whole insides though, Im afraid you will just get a rotten egg.
Keep us posted though

Yeah, that's what I suspect...

But had I not tried, it would definitely have no chance. The yolk was in a different spot than the shell, and the whites were at the very bottom of the nest hole. There was a sharp rock that jutted into the nest hole, so my guess is, that cracked the egg.

 

[biochemnerd808]

Well, that went nowhere, fast. This morning there was a big old hairy glob of mold growing on the yolk, so I threw it away.

It was worth a try.

Oh man, I don't think it will work but how cool if it does.
Without the whole insides though, Im afraid you will just get a rotten egg.
Keep us posted though

 

[wellington]

Well, hope there isn't a next time but if there is, either try no washing or no trying at all.

 

[jeff kushner]

Kudo's for trying! Most would have discarded it immediately but you saw that there was only "gain" in trying with zero risk, other than to your nose. LOL

I've failed at thousands of things, thousands and learned each time......in this case, I learned from you so thanks B8!