Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After a 2 year drought, with many eggs laid and failed, my russian tortoises have produced another hatchling!

It popped completely out of its egg this morning after 56 days. I check the eggs last night and noticed no signs of pipping, so this is one very energetic hatchling. He tried to bite me several times while I was cleaning off the vermiculite. He weighed 14 grams. I haven't checked his length yet - I'll wait until he has straightened out a little more. He had completely absorbed his yolk sac.

He came from a batch of 4 eggs in which the other 3 cracked and oozed out by the 4th week. The mother is a store bought tortoise that I got several years ago at 4" and she is almost 7" now. She laid her first batches last year, but they all failed. She has 4 more eggs from another batch in the incubator.

I also have 5 eggs (one batch of four, another single) from another female. She is the mother of my only other hatchling, who is now 2 years old. She laid her first batch of the year on the same day as the other female, so the eggs should be popping sometime soon.

I'll wait to see how many other hatchlings I get from this first round and post a picture in a few days.

Congratulations on the baby!! I had a Russian hatch yesterday as well. There are still 3 more that need to hatch. Good luck with the other eggs.

Reid

Brad, that's just great to hear! I know you've been trying hard to hatch out another one, and I'm so glad that it's finally happened. Any ideas why you were successful this time?

Congrats to all!
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Sohni

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise
0.0.1 Marginated Tortoise
1.0 3 Toed Box Turtle (rescued)
plus my kids' herps:
0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

It's hard to say why I have another hatchling - I was surprised by the one I had two years ago! I really can't claim success until more than one hatches *this* year.

They did hibernate a few days longer over the last winter. I've fed them less Mazuri, less squash and carrots, fewer grocery greens, and more yard weeds this year. In fact, this year I've fed them less overall in terms of days per week and allowed them to do more foraging in their pen. I added calcium to the soil early this spring and sowed it with clover. As the year wears on and the weeds run out, I'll feed them more greens. I'll add a few pellets now and then as a supplement, but only once a month at most. I've realized that I had almost no good reason to feed them any pellets at all, so I may phase them out entirely. They do add a little fiber at the times when they are eating only greens.

It could be that it's the cumulative effect of better care than they used to be getting, and that the largest female may have reached full sexual maturity this year.

I just took the little guy out of his first soak, and placed him in front of a dandelion leaf.

And he ate a few bites! He wrestled with it just like the adults do. Now he's wondering around looking at his new enclosure: a plastic tub with a newspaper substrate and two humid hide spots. And not even a day old!

I've gotta get some more lightbulbs. The 60-watt has the temps up to near 100!

Good job. I'm still waiting for my first batch of eggs. I have three females and one male but so far I've gotten O eggs. My largest female is around 6 1/2 inches. They all live outside six months out of the year and have all kinds of weeds to eat. I guess their just not ready yet to lay. Maybe next year lol..

only 56 days? what a mighty tort...Congratulations!