Chewychips
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2015
- Messages
- 6
I'm new to the forum - let me share this story...
I grew up with box turtles, and my young daughter takes care of a captive bred four year old Florida box turtle. On April 2nd, I was driving home when I noticed a box turtle that was hit on the side of the road. Seeing box turtles in my large Florida town is a rarity (unfortunately). I've seen only two (including this one) that were roadkill in the last five years.
In any case, I pulled the car over to see if it had survived and was shocked to see how badly this poor girl had been crushed. I was even more surprised when she hissed and tried to close her shell. Upon realizing she was still alive I took her home and tried to "repair" her. Over 3/4 of her shell was smushed into half-dollar sized bits. I knew going in that there would be a low chance of survival, and unfortunately Boxie Mom passed away a couple of hours later.
While I was fixing her, I noticed that she had at least one egg that appeared to be unhurt. Before we buried her, we extracted five eggs in total. I had never thought about eggs being viable when I got her off the road, and I guess I found on this forum that there have been instances of successful hatchlings from "roadkill eggs".
I'm trying to keep my daughter's expectations in check (and honestly mine too), so we're calling these guys the "Maybe Babies". I found Mom in a relatively populated area of Orlando, so I'm not sure if there is a great chance these have been fertilized. Being close to thirty days old now, the eggs seem to be a bit bigger, and I'm not getting any smell that would indicate decomposition. I've added a picture - the eggs are kept in a room that is about eight degrees and I keep a moist paper towel on top of them.
Any advice, suggestions, or encouragement would be appreciated. Thanks! Chewy
I grew up with box turtles, and my young daughter takes care of a captive bred four year old Florida box turtle. On April 2nd, I was driving home when I noticed a box turtle that was hit on the side of the road. Seeing box turtles in my large Florida town is a rarity (unfortunately). I've seen only two (including this one) that were roadkill in the last five years.
In any case, I pulled the car over to see if it had survived and was shocked to see how badly this poor girl had been crushed. I was even more surprised when she hissed and tried to close her shell. Upon realizing she was still alive I took her home and tried to "repair" her. Over 3/4 of her shell was smushed into half-dollar sized bits. I knew going in that there would be a low chance of survival, and unfortunately Boxie Mom passed away a couple of hours later.
While I was fixing her, I noticed that she had at least one egg that appeared to be unhurt. Before we buried her, we extracted five eggs in total. I had never thought about eggs being viable when I got her off the road, and I guess I found on this forum that there have been instances of successful hatchlings from "roadkill eggs".
I'm trying to keep my daughter's expectations in check (and honestly mine too), so we're calling these guys the "Maybe Babies". I found Mom in a relatively populated area of Orlando, so I'm not sure if there is a great chance these have been fertilized. Being close to thirty days old now, the eggs seem to be a bit bigger, and I'm not getting any smell that would indicate decomposition. I've added a picture - the eggs are kept in a room that is about eight degrees and I keep a moist paper towel on top of them.
Any advice, suggestions, or encouragement would be appreciated. Thanks! Chewy