Unexpected egg; what's going on here?

[DVirginiana]

I rescued a female box turtle with a severe eye/respiratory infection last June, and she's been with me ever since. Seems to have adjusted well to captivity, and even begs for food and follows me around.

I just went up, and found that she had laid an egg in her enclosure?! She definitely hasn't been with a male turtle since last summer in the wild. Can they store sperm over winter like some snakes do? Is this an infertile egg, or is there any way to tell for sure?
If it's not infertile, I'd like to try and hatch it. Her enclosure bedding is reptibark with a moss-filled hide for moisture (her eyes are somewhat scarred, and cocofiber irritates them) so it definitely can't stay buried in there. Any suggestions?

Also, what I'm most worried about is whether there was anything I should watch out for with the adult? Retained eggs? Infection? She seems alert and fine for now.

 

[shellfreak]

She can store sperm for up to five years. It's possible it is fertile. There are threads on this site that discuss in detail how to make an incubator and at what temps and humidity, etc. I would incubate it for sure. Maybe this is your reward for rescuing her, karma tends to catch up with you at some point. Good luck.

 

[DVirginiana]

I've found several different incubator methods so far... Considering I have a leftover small tank and underwater thermostat/heater, I think I'm going to go with a method that had the eggs in potting soil in a plastic container, surrounded but not submerged in the water. The temperature in this apartment fluctuates pretty bad, so I'm thinking that may be my best bet for keeping temps stable.

I'm excited to see how many eggs there will be! When I left her, she was digging through her reptibark trying to lay some more. Going to check back in later

 

[yagyujubei]

A single egg isn't that unusual. I have successfully hatched them.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-45351.html

Here's a good thread for incubator tips.

 

[DVirginiana]

I noticed last night as I removed the egg from her enclosure that there was a dent in one side of it, and the outermost layer of the shell had a small hole. The membrane underneath that seems to be intact though. Looking at it this morning, I added a little water around it, and nothing seems to have leaked out of the hole or anything... Should I even continue trying to incubate it?

 

[Yvonne G]

I would. The dent sometimes means the egg isn't being kept moist enough. I have hatched box turtle eggs in a little container of vermiculite sitting on top of the water heater. Where my water heater is the room temp is usually around 80F.

 

[yagyujubei]

If you get the humidity high enough, the dent will disappear as well as the crack.