OMG!!

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Yvonne G

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On September 30th of last year I put 27 babcock leopard eggs in the incubator. The female had not been with a male, nor had she laid any eggs in over four years. This is the sight that met my eyes when I opened the incubator this evening, almost 4 months later:

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Jacqui

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*does a woot woot victory dance for Yvonne!*

See what happens, when you never give up!!!
 

jesst

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Congrats!! Thats amazing she went that long without a male and they are still fertile
 

dmmj

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Congrats, I guess this is more evidence for females storing sperm. Here is hoping the others hatch.
Now you gotta find homes for the ones hatching.
 

jojodesca

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I would not have thought it was possible, but here is proof!...do you have a male at all?....this is truly awesome...I want hatchlings!!

I wonder if you candle the other eggs if you will see anything in them.....
 

Tim/Robin

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That is awesome!! Nothing like finding a baby tortoise looking out at you. I am amazed that after all this time she had at least 1 fertile egg!!
 

ALDABRAMAN

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Congrats, four years? That proves something for sure. What temp and humidity levels do you incubate at?
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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Wow, must be close to a record for sperm storage. I thought three years was considered the max, but you say yours had a baby four years after mating? Impressive. Who knows, maybe they can go even longer than that!
 

Tortoise

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Congrats Yvonne:D
Great you decided to try incubating the eggs despite feeling that nothing would happen.
Nature is really amazing and full of surprises!!
 

CT Grim

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Very cool! :cool:

Just started incubating 29 ping pong balls left by Tilly. :)
 

Yvonne G

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I don't have any gauges besides the cheap-o thermometer that comes with the incubator. I set it at around 86F degrees, use moist vermiculite and keep a container of water in there. Every three or four days, whenever I think about it, I open the lid and spritz the eggs with room temp. water. All of these eggs are chalky white and all looked really good, but I really didn't think they were fertile. Now I'm hoping that some more will hatch.

Because of a question up above, I'll tell the story again. If you've already heard it you can skip to the next thread now. :p

I used to have 2.4 adult leopard tortoises. I had two incubators of eggs going, seemed like all the time. I sold the first few for $100 fairly easily, but then, even though I lowered the price, my area was glutted with leopard babies, and was not able to sell any more locally. I really don't like to ship, so didn't advertise except locally. But finally had to go bigger, and told about them here on the forum. I eventually lowered the price to $50 plus shipping and finally 2 for $50 plus shipping. I had a very hard time selling the last few. And ended up actually giving quite a few of them away. For that reason, I adopted out the males (if memory serves, one may have died) and two of the females. I kept the very first egg that hatched 5 years ago, and that one ended up being male, but he's not big enough to breed the large females, and has shown no breeding interest or activity.
 
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