incubation questions

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TomD

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Surprise, my female leopard just layed 12 eggs and the male seemed at least a year away from the size needed. Anyway, the eggs are now in my snake incubator at 82 degrees. they are in the usual plastic box on vermiculite just like my snakes. Now- is this the correct setup for tortoise eggs, how do they differ from snakes? do they need more ventilation, humidity, etc..? What about the diapause? how long and at what temperature and when during the incubation? Can you candle the eggs and see how things are working? I plan the raise the incubator to 86 degrees once I have a plan about this diapause.
thanks tom
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Tom:

Welcome to the forum!!
 

terracolson

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- would raise the temp to 84 unless u for sure want males. At 84 it could go either way.
 

terrypin

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TomD said:
Surprise, my female leopard just layed 12 eggs and the male seemed at least a year away from the size needed. Anyway, the eggs are now in my snake incubator at 82 degrees. they are in the usual plastic box on vermiculite just like my snakes. Now- is this the correct setup for tortoise eggs, how do they differ from snakes? do they need more ventilation, humidity, etc..? What about the diapause? how long and at what temperature and when during the incubation? Can you candle the eggs and see how things are working? I plan the raise the incubator to 86 degrees once I have a plan about this diapause.
thanks tom

hi Tom i incubate my leopard eggs at 88f they are pardalis babcocki.i pre soak the vermiculite then squeeze out as much as i can but the vermiculite is still moist and stcks together .then i bury the eggs in the vermiculite .after about a month you can clear a little vermiculite away from the top to see if they have started chalking up.
terry
 

coreyc

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HELLO Welcome to the forum glad to see you join there's alot of great info here :)
 

spikethebest

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i just got 13 eggs laid this morning, from my babcocki female leo torts. i am going to incubate them at 88F in a incubator filled with vermiculite.

no diapause with p.b., just p.p.

you need to wait 6 weeks to candle them to look for veins, and/or see chalking

i hope both of our clutches pip out!
 

TortieLuver

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I have heard that there is a diapause "perhaps" with the pps. I read Fife's book and doesn't show clear evidence one way or another for sure if there really is a diapause or not. Does anyone have true pps and do you believe there really is a diapause time needed to cool the eggs for 30 days prior to incubating?
 

Neal

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TortieLuver said:
I have heard that there is a diapause "perhaps" with the pps. I read Fife's book and doesn't show clear evidence one way or another for sure if there really is a diapause or not. Does anyone have true pps and do you believe there really is a diapause time needed to cool the eggs for 30 days prior to incubating?

I've talked to Richard Fife about this. He says it's still being tested and we have a ways to go learning about diapause in gpp. For how long and what temperature seems to be what they are trying to figure out. He says he has more success when they are left in the ground over winter, which I imagine cools down the eggs for a couple of months.
 

onarock

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Congrats. I usually incubate at 86 and like previously mentioned p.babcocki = no diapause. I use semi course vermiculite and I wet it till its plyable. At 2 weeks I usually check for chalking but its not really a good indicator for fertility in my experience. I put them in a plastic shoe boxes that I bought at K-mart and then into my refridgerator incubator. With p.babcocki I've noticed that high humidity really isnt that important since their shells are pretty hard. All in all their a pretty easy egg to incubate, low maintenance and quick. I usually only burry my eggs half way, we dont have a problem with carion flys where I live but you may want to burry them completely. I have read where people dry incubate them (no substrate) just a rack. Their hardy. Good luck and post some pics along the way (chalking, veining,etc)
 
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