I'm wondering too if their health problems stemmed from improper care of the mother.

Long story I'll shorten. My vet surgically removed 34 eggs from a gravid female who was egg bound. Eggs looked good so vet took 17 eggs & incubated them- the breeder/owner took the other half.
Only one egg from each batch hatched.
3 & 1/2 years later the baby that the vet incubated is doing fine, no pyramidding, looks perfect, vet keeps the baby on a fresh appropriate diet.
Breeder fed her baby pellet food only. That baby died about a year ago.
Breeder wasn't properly feeding mother tortoise or she wouldn't have become eggbound (again) in the first place.
Why would only 2 eggs hatch? I think because breeder wasn't feeding mother tortoise correctly to begin with.
That's why the baby is dead, breeder wasn't feeding correctly in the first place- pellet food only.
Thankfully, that breeder got out of the breeding game, I think she really needed to do that!

I think that your theory of care problems by the breeder before your babies were ever born is very plausible.
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PHRatz

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