My eggs hatched!

[Yvonne G]

Several weeks ago I was pulling weeds by the pond and Misty (my ever faithful doberman companion) was digging next to me. She uncovered a nest of eggs and I was able to salvage 2 of them.

My pond has only female RES, several pond turtles of both sexes, some Florida soft shells of both sexes and a female phrynops hillari.

I had seen one of the pond turtles nesting in that area, so I assumed the eggs were from her.

Well, today I found something in my incubator. The picture doesn't do them justice. They are bright green (pond turtles are brown):

Anybody want a baby RES?

 

[Gerards]

Is it a hybrid?

 

[Yvonne G]

No...they're little RES, however, they don't have any red on their necks. I have only had female RES in that pond for the whole time I've lived here, but several weeks ago someone brought me a "tortoise" they found that turned out to be a large female RES. I was too lazy to try to find her a home, so I tossed her in my pond. Evidently she used to live with a male.

 

[Baoh]

Is several weeks ago a few months ago in this case?

 

[Anthony P]

Good point, didnt think of that.

 

[Yvonne G]

Sorry...I didn't mark down the date. It had to have been enough time for the eggs to develop and hatch...but they were buried pretty shallow and it gets hot here.

 

[Baoh]

It does not have to be exact. Would you say it has been at least a good three months since that female came to your place? If so, then it could easily be hers and running off of retained sperm. If not, that becomes dramatically less likely.

 

[Yvonne G]

To be honest with you...I don't really know. It seems like just a couple weeks ago. But when you're retired with not much to do time is hard to keep track of. I guess it would behoove me to look back at my telephone log and see if I can find when they called me to make the appointment to bring me the "tortoise." It never occurred to me that it might be a hybrid.

 

[Baoh]

If you can find that information, it would be of use.

I am not saying it is a hybrid or anything. I am just trying to help provoke the gathering of information at this point.

Please post close-up shots of the little one when you have time, too.

 

[N2TORTS]

Very neat Yvonne.... I have had a similar experience ..

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, the plot thickens. The guy called me about the found "tortoise" on July 8th. And if memory serves, he brought the turtle the next day. So from July 9th to August 28th, about 50 days...that's not enough time to hatch out RES eggs, is it?

This is the first one:

and this is the second one, has a split scute:

I tried to get a shot of the neck, but they won't come out all the way:

But there's only a very tiny red dot right behind the eyes.

 

[Baoh]

Hmmm. The first vertebral scute appears off in terms of shape for the non-split hatchling.

Those are good shots. If you can get close-ups and crop them so we can just look at the turtles at the size of the forum limitations, that would help. Crop away the edges that are not the turtle and then save it, attaching it or uploading and embedding it that way. That way, when we look at it, the turtle will be the size of a GPsS unit. Right now, the image area taken up by the turtle is less than or around the size of a quarter for me.

50 is fast. Not impossible fast, but edge of possible fast.

 

[Yvonne G]

N2Torts: I'd like to hear your story. It's ok with me if you want to post it in this thread.

 

[Jacqui]

That face is adorable as your holding him downward. Very obvious why folks can't say "no" to them. .... that's even before the split scute comes into play.

 

[nate.mann]

Hmmm. The first vertebral scute appears off in terms of shape for the non-split hatchling.

Those are good shots. If you can get close-ups and crop them so we can just look at the turtles at the size of the forum limitations, that would help. Crop away the edges that are not the turtle and then save it, attaching it or uploading and embedding it that way. That way, when we look at it, the turtle will be the size of a GPsS unit. Right now, the image area taken up by the turtle is less than or around the size of a quarter for me.

50 is fast. Not impossible fast, but edge of possible fast.

i went ahead and cropped the photos or Yvonne, lets see if this helps.


Chive On!

 

[ShellyTurtlesCats]

Oh man. This is yanking on my heart strings. Must resist RES cuteness overload!

In other words, very cute. Send him to me.

 

[kathyth]

That sweet baby is absolutely adorable.
Good Donerman helper!

 

[Baoh]

---

Hmmm. The first vertebral scute appears off in terms of shape for the non-split hatchling.

Those are good shots. If you can get close-ups and crop them so we can just look at the turtles at the size of the forum limitations, that would help. Crop away the edges that are not the turtle and then save it, attaching it or uploading and embedding it that way. That way, when we look at it, the turtle will be the size of a GPsS unit. Right now, the image area taken up by the turtle is less than or around the size of a quarter for me.

50 is fast. Not impossible fast, but edge of possible fast.

i went ahead and cropped the photos or Yvonne, lets see if this helps.


Chive On!

Appreciated, but that impacts the lowered res image. I cropped the originals so that we are not losing any additional detail.

 

[Yvonne G]

It's been a long time since I've seen RES hatchlings, but I'm thinking my new babies aren't as vivid green as a normal RES is.

I never even gave any thought to interbreeding in my pond. I thought that Actinemys and Trachemys were not close enough in the gene pool for successful breeding.

Well, darn it! Now I'm going to have to set up a baby pool and keep these darned things just to see what they grow up to.

 

[Baoh]

Shoot me the plastron original when you get time and I will repeat the process performed above to make things complete, too.

That first vertebral on the non-split animal makes me highly suspicious. Also, the scute pattern and coloration is...interesting.

---