WARNING: The pictures in this post are very graphic and sad of quadruplets box turtles from one egg that did not survive.
I am only posting them because of interest from forum members as being educational from a biological view. Sometimes in nature unfortunate births can occur like this. I have hatched numerous box turtle eggs with few problems. This is the first time I have ever had anything like this happen.
If you are easily upset or offended by seeing deceased animals, please do not scroll down and look at these pictures.
Below is my post from a few days ago then the pictures.
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I had a sad experience today with what I thought was a normal 3 toed box turtle hatching. It started yesterday, but I noticed the hatchling looked a little deformed as it was half out the egg and struggling as you can see in the picture below.
I peeked inside the opening today and could see another hatchling, then another! I didn't see any movement from them. A couple hours later the exposed hatchling passed away.
I opened the egg and couldn't believe there were 4 hatchlings inside, one was very tiny.
It was a sad sight but interesting from a biology aspect. I only wished they would have survived.
I am only posting them because of interest from forum members as being educational from a biological view. Sometimes in nature unfortunate births can occur like this. I have hatched numerous box turtle eggs with few problems. This is the first time I have ever had anything like this happen.
If you are easily upset or offended by seeing deceased animals, please do not scroll down and look at these pictures.
Below is my post from a few days ago then the pictures.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had a sad experience today with what I thought was a normal 3 toed box turtle hatching. It started yesterday, but I noticed the hatchling looked a little deformed as it was half out the egg and struggling as you can see in the picture below.
I peeked inside the opening today and could see another hatchling, then another! I didn't see any movement from them. A couple hours later the exposed hatchling passed away.
I opened the egg and couldn't believe there were 4 hatchlings inside, one was very tiny.
It was a sad sight but interesting from a biology aspect. I only wished they would have survived.