The waiting is the hardest part...

BrookeB

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
424
Location (City and/or State)
Bodfish
Ohhhhh lucky!!! I wanna hatch some babies too but that won’t be for many years as I’m still just raising babies... I hatch chickens every spring though. So much fun.
 

turtlesteve

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
711
OK, I need some help here from someone who has hatched these:

Is chalking of the egg a sign of immediate development? In other words, does it typically happen BEFORE or AFTER the diapause period? The egg has chalked and changed to a more orange tone inside, and I really was not expecting any sign of fertility or development until after diapause...

@zovick
@DanP
 

zovick

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Nov 17, 2013
Messages
3,388
OK, I need some help here from someone who has hatched these:

Is chalking of the egg a sign of immediate development? In other words, does it typically happen BEFORE or AFTER the diapause period? The egg has chalked and changed to a more orange tone inside, and I really was not expecting any sign of fertility or development until after diapause...

@zovick
@DanP
It has been about 15 years since I hatched any Pyxis and I cannot say for sure when the eggs chalked. I am not sure I ever noted when it happened in relation to the diapause period.

I based my decisions upon whether the eggs were developing not on chalking but on the visibility of blood vessels inside the eggs. In the early days, I tried incubating the eggs for a month before cooling them at all. After one month of incubation, I candled the eggs and those that showed no blood vessels were cooled. The ones that did have blood vessels were not cooled.

In later years, I cooled the eggs first for a month, then incubated them for a month and candled them. Those that had blood vessels inside were left in the incubators and those which did not were cooled again. I cooled some eggs twice and occasionally three times before they developed.

When I moved from CT to GA, I did not want to move any eggs which were developing during the move, so cooled all eggs of several species (all Pyxis ssp, Burmese and Sri Lankan Stars, and Radiated Tortoises) which were laid from January through July. I then set up my incubators in GA and began incubation of those eggs upon my arrival here July 27th. To my surprise, the eggs developed exceedingly quickly and hatched in much shorter times than I had previously experienced. I hatched several P. planicauda in 70-75 days and the same happened with the Stars. The Radiated Tortoise eggs took longer than that, but still hatched in about 85 days or so compared with normal incubation times of 95 to 110 days.
 

Toddrickfl1

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 7, 2018
Messages
7,103
Location (City and/or State)
Ga
Congratulations man, I hope your work pays off.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
It has been about 15 years since I hatched any Pyxis and I cannot say for sure when the eggs chalked. I am not sure I ever noted when it happened in relation to the diapause period.

I based my decisions upon whether the eggs were developing not on chalking but on the visibility of blood vessels inside the eggs. In the early days, I tried incubating the eggs for a month before cooling them at all. After one month of incubation, I candled the eggs and those that showed no blood vessels were cooled. The ones that did have blood vessels were not cooled.

In later years, I cooled the eggs first for a month, then incubated them for a month and candled them. Those that had blood vessels inside were left in the incubators and those which did not were cooled again. I cooled some eggs twice and occasionally three times before they developed.

When I moved from CT to GA, I did not want to move any eggs which were developing during the move, so cooled all eggs of several species (all Pyxis ssp, Burmese and Sri Lankan Stars, and Radiated Tortoises) which were laid from January through July. I then set up my incubators in GA and began incubation of those eggs upon my arrival here July 27th. To my surprise, the eggs developed exceedingly quickly and hatched in much shorter times than I had previously experienced. I hatched several P. planicauda in 70-75 days and the same happened with the Stars. The Radiated Tortoise eggs took longer than that, but still hatched in about 85 days or so compared with normal incubation times of 95 to 110 days.
Golden. This information is golden. I'm having a hell of a time "cracking the code" for SA leopard incubation. This post just gave me one more experiment to try this year.
 

kingsley

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
191
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Golden. This information is golden. I'm having a hell of a time "cracking the code" for SA leopard incubation. This post just gave me one more experiment to try this year.
Tom have you unearthed the sensors you placed around the nest sites last year? Eager to see your data.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Tom have you unearthed the sensors you placed around the nest sites last year? Eager to see your data.
Yes. And Mark compiled the data into charts and posted it here in post #135:
 

Sleppo

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
413
Location (City and/or State)
Philadelphia, PA
Only here to say the subject line of this post now has Tom Petty stuck in my head. Good luck with the eggs!
 

turtlesteve

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
711
@turtlesteve How are the eggs doing?

Well, I did get both fertile and infertile eggs this year. The first embryo died, likely a week or two before it would have hatched. I finally opened the egg only to find that the embryo was in a very awkward position (at one end of the egg) with the head pointed straight down, so I hypothesize that it simply was unable to rotate in the egg and suffocated. I'm still hopeful that I will get a hatchling this year, however. I have another egg at a similar point of development right now (a week or so from expected hatch date) so fingers are crossed.

Here's a photo of the one that didn't make it. Really heartbreaking losing one this close to hatching.
IMG_1363.JPG
 

yaycolin

Active Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Messages
117
Location (City and/or State)
Huntington Beach, CA
Well, I did get both fertile and infertile eggs this year. The first embryo died, likely a week or two before it would have hatched. I finally opened the egg only to find that the embryo was in a very awkward position (at one end of the egg) with the head pointed straight down, so I hypothesize that it simply was unable to rotate in the egg and suffocated. I'm still hopeful that I will get a hatchling this year, however. I have another egg at a similar point of development right now (a week or so from expected hatch date) so fingers are crossed.

Here's a photo of the one that didn't make it. Really heartbreaking losing one this close to hatching.
View attachment 319428
That is very unfortunate. I am sorry to hear that.. best of luck on your next egg!
 

turtlesteve

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
711
No, sadly I lost all of the 2020 eggs in the last few weeks of incubation. I am hopeful to hatch one this year (or early next year) for the first time.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Tom

New Posts

Top