Sulcata day old care

[dwwikel]

Hey,

My name is Derek and I am raising some sulcata babies. I was wondering how to care for the babies after they hatch. I was researching and they have a egg sac when they are born. I someone knows anything please let me know so I know what to do when they hatch. I've got 16 in the incubator right now at 89'f since Jan 31-13.

Thanks

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome! Are these eggs from sulcatas that you have?

 

[Dizisdalife]

Hi Derek, welcome to the Forum. There is a section on Tortoise Breeding that has some info you may be looking for. You may need to use the search function to find threads and post that are more inline with what you need. As far as how to raise sulcata hatchlings and babies there are some good stickies at the top of this page. A good place to start reading.

 

[Tom]

Actual hatching out of the egg will usually take from several hours up to a couple of days. Once they step out of their eggs, I move them into a brooder box. Get a plastic shoe box. Drill a few quarter inch holes on the sides near the top. Line the bottom with paper towels and dampen them with a sprayer with plain water. Rinse the incubation media off of their remaining egg shell and the baby and put them into the brooder box. In addition to the egg shell, I put some greens in there too. This way, if the babies get the munchies, they can eat their shells or some greens, and not the paper towels. I give the babies their first warm shallow soak while I prepare their brooder box. This also helps get any incubation media off of them too. A warm rinse or spray is usually needed to get all the vermiculite off of them. I keep no more than six babies per box and I change the paper towels and greens out every day while I soak them. Keep the box somewhere warm. I usually keep my brooder boxes inside my incubator or inside one of my closed chamber enclosures. After about a week they will have absorbed their yolk sac and the umbilical scar will have closed. At this point they are ready to move to a regular baby enclosure. Closed chambers work best at this point.

Good luck.