New Gift From TortStork

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
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Jan 9, 2010
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63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
My theories are:
1. Darwin. Meaning, that it just wasn't supposed to survive regardless. I've had a bunch of eggs that developed and then stopped for some unknown reason. This is the clutch mate of another egg that I shipped out to TJ, whose tortoise is doing amazing with no issues. So maybe this one in nature would have never gotten this far to begin with. But with assisted incubation it developed further along then it was supposed to.
2. The tortoise wasn't completely developed and the pressure of the plane caused the egg to expand and the tortoise pipped too soon and it wasn't old enough to breath real air.
3. The upright shipping indicator was positive, which means at some point the box was turned upside down. Hard to predict how long it was upside for. If it was a long period of time, the air sac in the egg could have been damaged.

These are just some of my thoughts. Would love to know what your thoughts are?

I'd like to share my thoughts on your theories:
1. This one really irks me. Nothing personal toward you, but this one has been used to explain and or excuse human failure FAAAAAAARRRRRRR too much and for far too long. This is what all the "dry routine" breeders say to excuse the large percentage of babies that die off every year. None of them can explain how come my hydrated babies all seem so much more fit for survival than their dry desiccated babies. I will grant that there is a small number of babies that just aren't right at hatching, but this number for me has been one out of 300-400. That is 0.025%. A quarter of one percent. Prior to my twins that hatched this last season and didn't make it, I've only had two of these babies that hatched with obvious congenital defects. The twins doubled my number of babies that didn't survive bringing my total to 4, after many years of hatching hundreds of eggs.

I'll share another experience. I had a friend ship me a hatching russian that still had a yolk sac. Don't know what happened, but there was a small lesion on the outside of the yolk sac upon arrival, and this one didn't make. Died after a few days. It appeared that the yolk sac became infected and this is always a death sentence for a hatching in my experience. I go to great lengths to protect the integrity of the yolk sac on all my babies.

My point: The chance that this baby was carrying a congenital defect that led to its demise is physically possible, but very very unlikely.

2. Planes are pressurized to match normal air pressure. Their is less air pressure at higher altitudes, so they "pressurize" the interior of the plane to about one atmosphere of pressure, which is what you'd experience at sea level on the ground. Any SCUBA divers out there? Maybe you can explain this better than me? Suffice to say that "pressure" in the plane would have nothing to do with the well-being of any animal or egg. I transport all sorts of animals all over the world for a living and the cargo and baggage compartments are at the same pressure as the passenger compartments, and that pressure is close to "regular" sea level pressure.

3. BINGO! I don't think there is any way to ensure that package transporting companies handle our packages carefully and delicately. Just the other day I drooped off a box of babies for shipping and told the lady to be careful because my "babies are in there", and she promptly picked up the box and tossed it around as if I were joking. I yelled "STOP!" and her smirk was replaced with shock at my tone. I asked why she would turn the box sideways and toss it when I just told her there were live babies in there, and she just looked at me. I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of what was inside the box, and asked her again to handle it gently and instruct the FedEx driver to do so too. When I get packages labeled "Fragile", the corners and sides are frequently crushed. This is one reason why I want babies to be at least a month or two old before shipping. At that age, when properly packed, they can be transported and the rough handling won't harm them. But a baby still in the egg with a big yolk sac being tossed around and turned every which way? I don't see how that is survivable.

I get the point of the people who don't approve. They make valid points. However, there is a certain amount of trial and error necessary with any new endeavor. Gotta break some eggs if you want to make an omelet, right?

A properly padded pyramid shaped box lined with styro, coupled with some sort of gimbal inside the box, seems like it could solve all of these issues, but how do we do that in an economical way? Overnight shipping will end up costing $200 or more…

The pyramid shaped box will also have the added benefit of keeping handlers from stacking other heavy stuff on top of our boxes, and the shape will be noteworthy and draw their attention. Perhaps the extra attention will cause them to handle it a little better and maybe even notice the labeling that explains: Fragile, Handle with care, live animals, this side up, etc…

What this thread has demonstrated to me is that more experimentation is needed with objects, before shipping near term eggs. Great innovations can come from solving these problems and much can be learned about breeding our tortoises and keeping babies alive. Necessity is the mother of invention. @shellfreak , you have a problem. Necessity dictates that you must invent a solution. I look forward to seeing what your creative mind comes up with.
 

Peliroja32

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Messages
335
Location (City and/or State)
Biloxi, Mississippi
My first torts when they arrived the fed ex guy had the box sideways under his arm as he grabbed out the other package i had......but this time i wasnt home, i had run to the store real fast and he just left the box on the porch, it was right side up and all, but.....the first time i had to be home to recieve since it was live animals i figured the second should have been the same no?
 

teresaf

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2015
Messages
2,023
Location (City and/or State)
Port Charlotte, Florida
My first torts when they arrived the fed ex guy had the box sideways under his arm as he grabbed out the other package i had......but this time i wasnt home, i had run to the store real fast and he just left the box on the porch, it was right side up and all, but.....the first time i had to be home to recieve since it was live animals i figured the second should have been the same no?
Good thing he left them. They would've probably been shipped back to sender...
 

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