Mucus on a box turtle egg?

[LTygress]

One of my two box turtles finally laid her eggs. She only laid two, which I gathered up, buried lightly in sphagnum moss, and put in an incubator. She laid them yesterday afternoon, and I just gathered them this morning.

But one of her eggs seems to be covered in mucus. It has a lot of this mucus on one end of it, and a thin layer over the rest of the egg. Any clue what this is? It's a white-ish color.

I really want to wipe it off and clean the egg off, to make sure it can "breathe" during incubation. But then I thought maybe whatever it is, could help the egg hold moisture. Any ideas?

 

[Yvonne G]

Way back in the dark ages when I raised ducks, I was told that the mucous deposited on the eggs at the time they're laid is a protective coating and it should not be washed off. I have carried that with me lo these many years, and have now been applying it to my tortoise endeavor. Until someone proves it wrong, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[LTygress]

I find that a funny coincidence, because I also (currently) breed and hatch chickens. Totally different incubation methods, too!

But this isn't like the thin layer of stuff you can't see on a chicken egg. This stuff is much thicker AND stickier. I went ahead and pulled off the part on the one end of the egg to make sure it wasn't the actual egg broken open and leaking. It's not, so I put it back in the moss and left the rest there. I will try to candle it in a couple of weeks to see how it's doing.

This is another challenge for me to go from 21-day chick incubation to 60-day turtle incubation! And here I thought I had lost my mind on 30-day goose eggs this year!

 

[dmmj]

60 day? lol, they take longer than that usually.

 

[biochemnerd808]

When our female RT laid her eggs I noticed that she drank a lot more water in the days before. The eggs were very slippery, and she dripped mucus while she laid. My guess is that tortoises and turtles just produce extra mucus during nesting to help the eggs go through the birth canal smoothly. I'm sure it won't do any harm to leave it on the egg, since in nature, nothing would wipe it off, either.

 

[LTygress]

60 day? lol, they take longer than that usually.

That was indeed an early estimate. I read on aboxturtle.com that it could take 60-90 days, and I always prepare for the earlier time frame just in case!