Random Egg - Help?!

[Angel Carrion]

Okay so I wasn't expecting one of my box turtles to lay, though I guess I should have seen it coming considering I don't know her story before taking her in. Anyway, I walked out to do my last-of-the-night check to make sure nothing is out of place around 9:10 and saw an egg sitting on top of the ground under a half-log hide. The female that birthed it (she's the only one in the pen since I brought my other female inside because of an illness) is missing some toes on a rear foot, so maybe that's why she didn't bury it? It looked like she maybe tried to dig a little but gave up and just dropped the egg and walked away. She's very very VERY good at digging forward and burrowing down that way, but I've never seen her dig with her hind legs, only her front. She's made herself a number of well constructed burrows that she tends to spend most of her time in when she's not eating or soaking or sunbathing herself.
I've never dealt with eggs before, so any and all suggestions and such are beyond welcome!! I'll post pictures in a minute.
I'm also on a severely limited budget because of big vet bills for numerous animals (I do rescue work) and can't really afford anything. So ways I can incubate the egg really really cheap would be wonderful suggestions.

 

[Angel Carrion]

No idea how to candle properly. Looks like something inside maybe, but honestly no idea if fertile or not. Ideas?

Food storage container with moist moss and plastic wrap over it held in place by a hair tie and holes punched in it. No idea if correct or not.

Under a heat lamp. Ignore the food and water

 

[wellington]

@terryo @Yvonne G @Jacqui @maggie3fan one of these members should be able to help you. Good luck.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Okay so I wasn't expecting one of my box turtles to lay, though I guess I should have seen it coming considering I don't know her story before taking her in. Anyway, I walked out to do my last-of-the-night check to make sure nothing is out of place around 9:10 and saw an egg sitting on top of the ground under a half-log hide. The female that birthed it (she's the only one in the pen since I brought my other female inside because of an illness) is missing some toes on a rear foot, so maybe that's why she didn't bury it? It looked like she maybe tried to dig a little but gave up and just dropped the egg and walked away. She's very very VERY good at digging forward and burrowing down that way, but I've never seen her dig with her hind legs, only her front. She's made herself a number of well constructed burrows that she tends to spend most of her time in when she's not eating or soaking or sunbathing herself.
I've never dealt with eggs before, so any and all suggestions and such are beyond welcome!! I'll post pictures in a minute.
I'm also on a severely limited budget because of big vet bills for numerous animals (I do rescue work) and can't really afford anything. So ways I can incubate the egg really really cheap would be wonderful suggestions.

put it in vermiculite, keep it damp and put a light over it and keep it warm. Maybe some else has a better idea, but....oh never mind...

 

[Angel Carrion]

@terryo @Yvonne G @Jacqui @maggie3fan one of these members should be able to help you. Good luck.

Thank you.

 

[Angel Carrion]

put it in vermiculite, keep it damp and put a light over it and keep it warm. Maybe some else has a better idea, but....oh never mind...

Vermiculite? What's that?
I have it in moist moss I luckily just bought yesterday and under a mercury vapor bulb

 

[wellington]

Vermiculite is in the garden section for places like Home Depot. It holds moisture. It's used to place eggs on and hold humidity. You miss it by weight one part vermiculite one part water. I just purchased a large bag. However, you can get smaller bags they just didn't have any available at my store. I do believe others have used moss, but I would be afraid of it molding which is why I never liked it when I was raising my leopard.
You want to use a CHE for heat as you want to put it on a thermostat with a probe that would go inside the box, so it will keep a steading temp and a MVB can not be turned on and off like a thermostat would work. I will post a link that is for leopards and sulcatas, but I think it can be used for yours too, not positive though.

 

[wellington]

Here is a link to a thread that Tom made. http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-incubate-eggs-and-start-hatchlings.124266/

 

[Jacqui]

With ornate box turtles, I just use a damp paper towel and stick it up in an unused cupboard. Cheap, simple and has worked for me.

What kind of box turtle?

 

[Angel Carrion]

With ornate box turtles, I just use a damp paper towel and stick it up in an unused cupboard. Cheap, simple and has worked for me.

What kind of box turtle?

Well the female that layed it is either full Eastern box or Eastern/3Toed hybrid. I'm not sure. The reason I say maybe hybrid is because she only has 3 toes on her back foot and the one foot that is missing two toes only has "toe bones" for three. But she could be full Eastern and just have the three toes.

 

[Angel Carrion]

I'll see if I can swing buying a CHE next week, but right now I'm dead broke. Right now it's in a temp range of 80-95 F so hopefully that's ok for now.

 

[terryo]

95 is a little high. Keep it damp and warm, but don't turn it or move it at all.

 

[Angel Carrion]

95 is a little high. Keep it damp and warm, but don't turn it or move it at all.

Okay I can make the temp go down a little.
I was very careful to not turn it or anything when I picked it up and I placed it on the moss in exactly the same position it was in on the ground. Honestly I'm afraid to touch it to change the moss out for that other stuff that was suggested.
The plastic wrap pulled right over the top of the container with little holes punched in it should be good to keep humidity inside the container up, right? Plus the box the egg's container is in is very humid as well. Is that enough or should I still take the plastic wrap off every few days and give it a spray?

 

[terryo]

Everything looks good to me. You should see a little condensation on the plastic wrap. Good luck.

 

[Angel Carrion]

I'm thinking it is not fertile. I took the plastic wrap off to mist the moss and picked up the egg gently to do so. The underside of the egg is caved in, but not halfway, but enough that I noticed. I didn't turn it over or anything, I carefully kept it at exactly the same angle and such and carefully put it back down exactly as it was. I covered it back up and put it back.
Does this mean it is infertile?

 

[Angel Carrion]

View attachment ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1439312094.073095.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1439312153.673269.jpg

 

[Angel Carrion]

I didn't turn the egg at all while holding it. The second picture was me angling the phone camera in a way to show the indent while still allowing me to see the screen. The egg was not tilted at all

 

[Angel Carrion]

SO NOW I HAVE FIVE EGGS?! Haha. Yesterday I was watching my box turtle wander around foraging and stuff for about a half hour. She didn't stop anywhere for long, except when she found a whole plum that fell from the tree and chowed down. I got up and was about to go inside when something caught my eye. I walk over to look, and lo and behold, there's an egg sitting on the ground in the exact SAME SPOT as the first egg back on August 7th when I first made this thread. I had literally just watered this spot before I sat down to watch her wander around and, while she was in this spot, it was only for like ten seconds before moving on. So I decided to follow the wandering and random path she took through and around the enclosure. Sure enough, in random places there was a single egg. Four new ones in total. The thing is, she didn't stop in any of these specific spots for longer than five seconds before moving on. It was other spots she stopped at for a few minutes to snatch that bug or take a bit of that plant. Like, she found a piece of tomato I had thrown in, ate half of it, wandered off, found an egg shell I had thrown in after breakfast yesterday, took a nice loud crunchy bite of that, wandered around, ate the plum, etc etc. So is she just randomly dropping eggs as she goes? Does she even know she's doing it? What is going on?! Haha!

I doubt any of them are fertile, but I placed them in the same container as the first and have them all warm and humid like y'all said.

 

[Mason Daniell]

This happened to me like 10 mins ago I don't have any way to keep heat around 80+ any suggestions

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Some people use an aquarium heater to heat water in an insulated cooler to a steady temperature. The egg is in the container on a shelf inside. No light, just warmth.

Do keep the condensation from falling on the egg.