Reasons for laying broken eggs.

Crzt4torts

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I tend to agree. The shell looks thin.
If she is getting plenty of calcium there may be some other cause. Is your female very young, or just starting to lay eggs? Does she get natural sunlight?
Time will tell, be patient.
The sunlight (UV) was my thought as well, without enough sunlight to generate Vitamin D, calcium is not used properly - so it IS possible to get enough dietary Calcium - yet to have a deficiency because that calcium is not utilized correctly in the body. Perhaps the significant amount of cuttlebone eating is because they are deficient.
 

Anyfoot

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I got home today to find this female had laid a clutch of 9. All normal size eggs and no calcification or broken eggs. My torts have had plenty of sun lately due to getting the outdoor enclosure completed, maybe that helped the broken egg problems. The 2nd photo is her first clutch with me from 207 days ago. I've just ditched those eggs.
I'd only had her a few weeks at that point.
IMG_20160614_174314.jpg IMG_20160614_175313.jpg
 

Loohan

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The problem with nuts, seeds, and many other foods including many greens is that they contain anti-nutrients which block the uptake of calcium. Theoretically. Actually, from what i've read, different individuals (humans) vary greatly as to how much these factors affect them. Possibly gut flora, genetics, and other factors weigh in.
And i have no idea how it pertains to reptiles.
But people who are concerned about it have ways of soaking or sprouting nuts.
I confess i usually just eat them and i feel fine.
 

Anyfoot

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I got home today to find this female had laid a clutch of 9. All normal size eggs and no calcification or broken eggs. My torts have had plenty of sun lately due to getting the outdoor enclosure completed, maybe that helped the broken egg problems. The 2nd photo is her first clutch with me from 207 days ago. I've just ditched those eggs.
I'd only had her a few weeks at that point.
View attachment 177282 View attachment 177283
Ok I need to put the above post right before I carry on with this thread. These 9 eggs were nothing to do with the female in this thread that I keep having problems with eggs breaking, so ignore it please .
I'll post again in a minute.
 

Anyfoot

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The female in this thread still keeps breaking eggs, I've had another 3 clutches from this female since I got them in the new tort house, they've been outside virtually every day this summer as they can come and go from their house at will. So that's the D3 side of things covered. I have permanently got cuttlebone on offer, so that covers calcium if they want it and ive seen this female eat plenty of cuttlebone. All 3 clutches had broken eggs, I assumed she was breaking them after laying until I saw her lay a broken egg as it left the cloaca, and some eggs are just empty shells.
Today(her 3rd clutch since I started this thread) she laid a clutch of 6, the 1st egg was broken again. On laying the 2nd egg the yolk came out first followed by a soft eggshell with just albumen in it(I opened this for the photo, it was a whole egg when laid). Eggs 3,4,5&6 were ok but different sizes. This female is extremely concaved on the plastron, could that be causing issues. I have 4 other females that have laid perfectly good eggs this yr.(by that I don't mean fertile but the actual eggs were fine)
What would cause a female to lay an egg in 2 parts, yolk then eggshell with albumen?
If you look carefully at the video you can see to the back right there is a yolk behind its eggshell. Some photos too.
IMG_20161123_215745.jpg IMG_20161123_215244.jpg
 

MPRC

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I cannot believe your group will eat 60 cuttle bones in a month. Mine sat for a YEAR before the 6 of them split it at random.
 

Anyfoot

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I cannot believe your group will eat 60 cuttle bones in a month. Mine sat for a YEAR before the 6 of them split it at random.
Yep, just bought another 2kg last Monday, scattered about 15 pieces all over the enclosure, I see them eating it on a daily occurrence, not so much the males though. I've checked poop to see if it's passing through and I can't see anything abnormal, that's assuming you would see calcium that passes through.
 

tarta4ever

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the eggs are different in size, in my opinion could be that the anal scutes cause the damage to the bigger eggs, probably the phenomen will disappear with the growth
 
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