Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

This is a bit unfortunate, but while I was away from home my dad was caring for my box turtle who laid 3 eggs in her temporary winter tank. The weather's fine again, so my dad moved the turtle outside to her pen and dumped the container out, only to find out the eggs rolled out (He didn't know they were in there). It's been 3 weeks or so since she laid them...what are the chances they are still viable? I mean, they're not broken or anything and he's incubating them in vermiculite as we speak but I'm pretty confident all that rolling must have crushed the embryos or something. Thanks.

Johnny

I have found movement like this to always prevent the eggs from hatching. Anything is possible but I've done exactly this many times and I've never had normal results following a tumble.

At three weeks, the eggs should show some veining when candled. Keep incubating and verify in the upcoming weeks.

Good luck. I know how you feel. It's a very delicate process.

Paul

Sorry to hear about the shuffle.
It wasn't completely clear from your post what the egg-laying/egg-rolling interval was. Careful candling ought to answer your questions.
I kept all the eggs produced by our girls in the incubator until some started to hatch and the others started to show signs if decay, simply because I wasn't 100% sure that I was seeing what I was supposed to see when candling.
Good thing I did, because the puny egg that I figured was a dud for sure hatched the tiniest little Eastern (just under 7/8 in. long) who is now eating like a horse and growing fast.
Good luck
Stephanie