Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, my sulcata eggs went to 91 degrees for some five hours due to an incubator failure. Do you guys think they still viable?? thanks for your time

Hi. If only for a few hours, your eggs should still be fine. Depending upon at what point in their development the embryos were when it occurred, you might see some abnormal scutes or even failure of one or both eyes to develop. However, many institutions and private persons incubate tortoise eggs at 90F with very few problems, and since sulcata occur in the Sahara Desert region, I would expect their eggs can tolerate even higher temperatures with no troubles.

thank you very much for your reply, is hard to find this kind of info just searching the web. Thanks again. Luis Larios

Where did you hear about the EYE synario, I'd not heard of that consiquence before.
graham(UK)

Some of us who have incubated tortoise eggs for many years have found that when incubation temperatures rise to around 90 degrees F. that a high incidence of deformities are likely to occur.
In my experience with redfoot tortoises (and other species as well) high incubation temps will often result deformed/split carapace scutes, small or nonexistent eyes and misshapen jaws.
When temps are around 88+ degrees the lesser deformities are more common like an extra scute or one or two split scutes. With each degree though the problems become much worse.

Obviously not Bill but I'm sure he won't mind throwing in my 2 pence.

The missing eye/eyes along with multiple scutes does seem to be a relatively common problem that seems to be temperature induced when the tempeatures get excessive. I've hatched out a couple of leopards with missing eyes. That is, the eye is totally missing to the point of that it does not even look like it should have been there... perfectly normal... and wierd. The scutes is a really common deformaty.

>>Where did you hear about the EYE synario, I'd not heard of that consiquence before.
>>graham(UK)
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Just curious, how did the hatchlings do with missing eyes? I had one hatch (sulcata) about 12 days ago missing an eye. He is kind of dragging his back legs and has yet to eat. Some carapace deformities too. He hasn't eaten yet. I thought I kept the temps around 88, but I am new to eggs and wasn't expecting to keep the eggs, not wanting to breed my sulcatas. Thanks.

Shawnon

The tortoises with only one eye missing were not a problem, though they had no other troubles, unlike the sulcata which you described. I would be very tempted to euthanize the animal which you hatched, most especially since it is a commonly available species and numerous babies with no physical problems are available to anyone who wants one.

The Radiated with no eyes also did OK, sniffing out the food and moving to it to eat daily. Since this was back in the early days, when under 15 Radiateds had ever been hatched in the US, I kept these guys alive, though today would euthanize them as well for the same reason stated above. I did turn them over to an institution after about a year of raising them to make room for more new babies. Ultimately all three died off there over the next few years. The totally blind one was the first to go, probably due to not being able to adequately compete for food in a larger group of tortoises.

Hi. I agree with what both mayday and EJ have said. Namely that the eyes of the developing tortoises seem to be adversely affected by higher incubation temperatures. It should also be pointed out though, that the length of time of exposure to the high temperatures plus when in the stage of the embryo's development the exposure occurs also play a role. In the case of the question asked above, 5 hours of 90F out of approximately 130 days will most likely cause no troubles.

I hatched three Radiateds way back in the 1970's with no eyes (1) and with only one eye (2) when using a primitive SEARS chicken egg incubator. Looking back now, I suppose that either the unit's thermostat or my thermometer was inaccurate, or maybe both were. As better and less wieldy products for incubation of reptilian eggs became available, the problems were not encountered.