WARNING: Graphic Pics of Deceased Quadruplets

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PATMAN

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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.

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Quat3Toeds1.jpg


Quat3Toeds2.jpg
 

froghaven5

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Wow that is amazing! Thanks for posting the pics. Not something we normally get to see.
 

DanaLachney

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That's so sad :'( I wish they could have made it though, would have been neat
 

MarcaineArt

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Sorry for your loss. I guess reptile eggs aren't that much different than chicken or other bird eggs that can have multiple embryos inside. Four is a lot though. I wonder if there would have been enough nourishment in the yolk to feed all of them even if you could have separated it somehow. Thanks for posting though because it is fascinating to me from a scientific perspective as well.
 

dmarcus

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Sad that they did not make it. Thanks for sharing the photos with us...
 

wellington

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Sad :(. Thank you for posting the pics, it is amazing how well they did develop. I would have thought a couple would have looked way under developed, but from the ones I could see the best, they were all looking pretty normal. Amazing that got that far. Sorry for you:(
 

Tccarolina

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Amazing! It looks like there was still plenty of yoke left, so the one must have started cutting out because of no more room. How far along (in days) was this egg?
 

Jacqui

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Thank you for sharing this. Just one of those things you need to see to really believe and visualize. I am a bit surprised at how much yolk there appears to be with four of them living off of it.
 

turtlemann2

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It looks like they very well may have continued to grow, if only there was more room. :( it appears as though there was plenty of yoke to nurish them for quite a while longer. Thank You for sharing, and again sorry it had ended in this fashion.
 

Momof4

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Wow, very interesting photos. Not graphic to me all. Sorry they didn't make it. It sure does look like they had a chance if the egg was bigger. Thanks for sharing.
 

PATMAN

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The egg was normal size and I had no idea anything was wrong. It had incubated for about 60 days which is normal. Another egg from the same clutch hatched normally a couple days earlier and the hatchling is a bit small but perfect.
 

batchick

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I'm sorry that none of them made it. But, I have to say, that is quite amazing from a biological perspective. Thanks for sharing. And i hope that you don't have to share anything like this again.
 

nicoleandrocky

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Thanks for posting, very sad what happened :( but very interesting from scientific stand point.
 

Redfootedboxturtles

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Dang man, sorry for your loss. Very interesting . Makes you wonder if these ever had a chance from the start.
 
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