Interesting hatchling homeana

[chairman]

Thus far this year my breeding pair of homeana has produced six hatchlings. The seventh hatchling, from the last egg remaining, pipped a couple days ago. The baby was very slow to come out of the egg but finally came out wearing its eggshell as a hat. When I removed the eggshell I believe that I discovered the reason for the slow hatching... the egg produced twins.

One hatchling is normal size and the other is very small. The normal size twin has a slight indentation in it's shell where the twin was, though it seems to be filling out properly as the hours pass. It also has some odd scutes. I don't believe the small one survived.

They are joined by the yolk. Is it safe to assume that I should get a scalpel and sever the yolk to prevent the surviving twin from getting an infection from the dead twin? Or will the surviving twin absorb and shed the yolk "normally"?

Some pics:

 

[Yvonne G]

What I've read about this is to tie off the yolk between the twins with dental floss and let it absorb naturally.

 

[wellington]

What I've read about this is to tie off the yolk between the twins with dental floss and let it absorb naturally.

Wouldn't this be if both twins were still alive? I would think the one dead could indeed affect the live one if left together.
I think @HermanniChris has had twins.

 

[HermanniChris]

You can YouTube “Separating Tortoise Twins” to see the video of how we did it here. Both twins are alive and turning 3 in October. We also had two new sets of twins this year. Twin Chinese box turtles which died right away and then twin wood turtles which are still alive.

 

[wellington]

So yes, they should be separated.

 

[chairman]

Glad to get confirmation that they require separation. I didn't want to separate them just to learn that it would have been better not to.

I tied off the yolk at what seemed to be a good natural breaking point and cut off the dead twin past that. The living one is quite energetic. It'll be interesting to see how the hinge ends up developing on a split scute/ odd scute animal.

 

[2turtletom]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing...

 

[kingsley]

I use a scalpel and basic sterile technique with great success. The surgical site is cleaned with batadine followed by some antibiotic ointment such as Neosporine.

 

[jsheffield]

Fascinating thread and pics!

Jamie

 

[chairman]

My approach wasn't as surgical, I may pick up a couple supplies for next year's hatchlings.

The little guy is doing well, just one of the bunch. He's the top left one in the picture with four tortoises.

 

[drew54]

My approach wasn't as surgical, I may pick up a couple supplies for next year's hatchlings.

The little guy is doing well, just one of the bunch. He's the top left one in the picture with four tortoises.

Those are very cool looking torts. Do you have information I could look over on these guys?

 

[chairman]

Most of the info I have on these tortoises is more in the area of working knowledge, but here goes...

As far as I'm aware, the tortoises are still classified as kinixys homeana, also called the Home's hingeback. They are from the forests of west-central Africa. I believe that they are the most populous of the hingebacks, mostly because you can purchase them wild caught for at least half of what all the other wild caught hingeback species sell for ($50 is a ballpark for a wild caught animal).

Because they are mostly wild caught, they have a reputation as being shy and fragile. The imports do tend to be fragile, many succumb to illnesses either picked up during or exacerbated by importation. If you buy an import, go for an unsexable juvenile, they seem to cope the best. My tortoises got over their shyness after a couple of years.

The tortoises do well with an ambient temperature in the 70s F. They're active down into the 50s and up into the 80s. I don't allow mine to get colder than 50. On the high end, they retreat to water and shade in the 90s. They will bask if you offer them a hot spot, and they're more likely to use the hot spot if you use a CHE or blacklight than a bright light.

The tortoises require high humidity. They need access to water to drink, soak in, and should have moist substrate.

The tortoises are omnivores, but tend to prefer fruits and proteins over greens. Mine are avid hunters of isopods, slugs, snails, and worms. I also feed mazuri tortoise food. You could probably offer moistened turtle food as well.

They are a relatively small tortoise, My largest adult is a little shy of 11" SCL. I think 7-10" is the customary size estimate. The minimum enclosure is 4'x2'. I house my adults outdoors in 8'x8' enclosures when the weather is appropriate and in 100 gallon stock tanks when it gets too cold outdoors. The stock tanks I use are adequate for a pair, you'd need to go larger for any more than two adults. You also need to gauge their aggressiveness, I have an adult male that can't be in the same 8'x8' as another male because he picks fights with other tortoises. I'm housing my hatchlings in groups and they're doing well with the arrangement. They haven't gotten much outdoor time due to their size and concerns I have about predators. I am working on outdoor enclosures for them.

An interesting feature of the tortoises is that they do not appear to hatch with their hinges fully developed. The hinge seems to manifest around the time that the tortoises can be accurately sexed visually.

I believe that's about it for the basics.

 

[drew54]

Most of the info I have on these tortoises is more in the area of working knowledge, but here goes...

As far as I'm aware, the tortoises are still classified as kinixys homeana, also called the Home's hingeback. They are from the forests of west-central Africa. I believe that they are the most populous of the hingebacks, mostly because you can purchase them wild caught for at least half of what all the other wild caught hingeback species sell for ($50 is a ballpark for a wild caught animal).

Because they are mostly wild caught, they have a reputation as being shy and fragile. The imports do tend to be fragile, many succumb to illnesses either picked up during or exacerbated by importation. If you buy an import, go for an unsexable juvenile, they seem to cope the best. My tortoises got over their shyness after a couple of years.

The tortoises do well with an ambient temperature in the 70s F. They're active down into the 50s and up into the 80s. I don't allow mine to get colder than 50. On the high end, they retreat to water and shade in the 90s. They will bask if you offer them a hot spot, and they're more likely to use the hot spot if you use a CHE or blacklight than a bright light.

The tortoises require high humidity. They need access to water to drink, soak in, and should have moist substrate.

The tortoises are omnivores, but tend to prefer fruits and proteins over greens. Mine are avid hunters of isopods, slugs, snails, and worms. I also feed mazuri tortoise food. You could probably offer moistened turtle food as well.

They are a relatively small tortoise, My largest adult is a little shy of 11" SCL. I think 7-10" is the customary size estimate. The minimum enclosure is 4'x2'. I house my adults outdoors in 8'x8' enclosures when the weather is appropriate and in 100 gallon stock tanks when it gets too cold outdoors. The stock tanks I use are adequate for a pair, you'd need to go larger for any more than two adults. You also need to gauge their aggressiveness, I have an adult male that can't be in the same 8'x8' as another male because he picks fights with other tortoises. I'm housing my hatchlings in groups and they're doing well with the arrangement. They haven't gotten much outdoor time due to their size and concerns I have about predators. I am working on outdoor enclosures for them.

An interesting feature of the tortoises is that they do not appear to hatch with their hinges fully developed. The hinge seems to manifest around the time that the tortoises can be accurately sexed visually.

I believe that's about it for the basics.

Thank you for your time and the info. That's very interesting about their hinges. Do you have any ideas as to why their hinges develop later?

 

[chairman]

Couldn't say why the hinges develop when they do. I do know that hatchlings attempt to seal their shells but are not capable of doing so. Adults and sub-adults close up quite well and have visible hinges across the top of their shells.

Hingebacks make up such a small proportion of tortoises that I imagine their development is not likely to ever be studied thoroughly.

 

[drew54]

Couldn't say why the hinges develop when they do. I do know that hatchlings attempt to seal their shells but are not capable of doing so. Adults and sub-adults close up quite well and have visible hinges across the top of their shells.

Hingebacks make up such a small proportion of tortoises that I imagine their development is not likely to ever be studied thoroughly.

It surprises me that tortoises in general aren't well studied. I've lessened a lot about them on this forum and I've also learned that there are still tons of information missing. Would this information gap be simply due to the lack of public interest?