Strange shaped eggs?

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hanley85

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My hermans laid two eggs last month. This is the first clutch I have had from her and unsure if she has lay previously. They are a strange 'tic tak' shape. Anyone have any ideas as to why? I incubated the eggs but no joy but iv since read about humidity within the incubator and I didn't take that into account at the time :-(ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1405804817.681129.jpg

Any info regarding humidity would also be appreciated. Thanks
 

Yvonne G

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Hermanni eggs are usually a little rounder than that, but not perfectly round - slightly oval-shaped. Your eggs were probably not fertile, however, I don't know why they are shaped like that. Those look like box turtle eggs.

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tglazie

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Hopefully Chris can help. He's the go to person on Hermanns. I've only bred Margies, but I've gotta say, those elongated eggs do seem rather strange. I agree with Yvonne that they look more like turtle eggs than tortoise eggs, but as I've never seen Hermanns eggs in person, I wouldn't argue myself an authority. My lady Marge always produces little ping pong balls, six to ten at a time.

As for humidity, I would imagine it is the same as Margies, sixty to seventy percent. I always place a large, shallow water dish inside a hovabator to keep the humidity high. I place the clutch in a large container, so that when I add water to the substrate, I can keep the eggs on one side while watering the opposite side to increase substrate moisture. I've had bad experiences with eggs cracking, as have many others on the forum, should you add water to substrate near the eggs. The rapid increase of moisture overstresses the eggshell and can cause it to pop. Always use a bigger container for this purpose, so that when you pour water into one end, the moisture slowly seeps to the opposite end. Just remember that eggs need to be handled gently, with the utmost regard to how delicate they are. No rapid changes in temperature or humidity, or you could lose the eggs.

T.G.
 

Carol S

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This year one of my Russian tortoises laid 3 eggs that were similar looking. All three were fertile and hatched. I did notice that the baby that hatched while I was at home seemed to have been folded differently in the egg than normal as his shell was contorted, but straightened out in a short period of time and looked normal.
 

tglazie

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Oh yes, and as for them being fertile or not, I treat all eggs as potentially fertile, because until we develop some tortoise sonogram technology that can detect a microscopic embryo inside an egg, you just never know. Sure, one can place bets, judge probability, but when my Marge was laying her first two clutches, every egg of the twelve turned out infertile except for one, and that baby took over a hundred and twenty days to emerge. Honestly, I was planning on throwing them out, but during the week when I was considering cracking them into a compost pile, I opened up the incubator to find a beautiful little girl taking her first breaths outside the shell. You really never can tell.

T.G.
 

HermanniChris

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Yep those are weird for sure. But they could still hatch. Hermann's (and all tortoises really) will spit out these oddly shaped eggs from time to time. I've seen it more with first time moms and elderly females. When it comes to odd shaped eggs the ones from elderly gals have a higher chance of being fertile. With first timers, it's like their system is trying to "get it right". Give them a shot at 86-88.4F with 65-70% humidity. You never know, they may very well be fertile. With T. marginata I see this much less but they can and do produce some oddities. For example, one of our females produces more oval eggs like hermann's. Perfectly round eggs are what is typical of marginateds. She is the only female out of the entire breeding colony that does this and she has 97-100% fertility which is great. She was imported directly from Greece many years ago with 3 other ladies and all but her lay the round, usual eggs.
 
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