Two (maybe) dumb questions

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kimber_lee_314

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Question 1

I'm trying to keep better breeding records this year. So has the baby officially hatched the day it starts to pip, or when it finally emerges from the egg (which can take a few days as you know)?

Question 2

One of my baby box turtles died a day after he hatched. (He had a difficult time coming out of the egg.) He was in a container inside the sealed incubator and when I found him he had maggots on him. Yuck! Where did these maggots come from? The egg was dug up immediately, rinsed and popped in the incubator with clean vermiculite. After he emerged from the egg I rinsed him (because they stink when they hatch) and put him in his own container on a damp paper towel. I'm at a loss where these bugs could have come from?
 

Yvonne G

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I count the day they fully emerge from the egg as the hatch date.

The maggots are gnat maggots. I don't know where they come from, because my house has no flies and no gnats, but as soon as I have any odor at all in my incubator, I get the gnats, and then the maggots. I have some Russian eggs in the incubator now that have to be rinsed off every day to get rid of the maggots.

Maybe they're in the nesting medium. I used vermiculite this time.
 
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