Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Two days ago the last of my North American Wood Turtle eggs finished up hatching. I have been breeding these for quite some time now and I have never experienced any oddities with hatchlings, that is until now. The very last egg starting pipping in the morning and by mid afternoon a complete surprise was revealed to me. In this egg was a fully developed WHITE wood turtle. It was not albino because he exhibited black eyes. It also had a black markings on the top of the head and a tiny bit on the shell. I was so shocked and so excited to see such a phenomenon. Unfortunatley the little turtle died later that evening. I will be preserving the animal and I am hoping to hatch another like it next year. It came from one of 2 females in my group. They were the last 2 of the girls to lay their eggs this year and I put their clutches together in the same deli cup. I have both of them and they have been with me for years. They are in top shape and health and hopefully next year this will happen again with better results.

I hatched an eastern box that was all white 2 years ago but it had no eyes, it too died.

Along with this white wood turtle I also hatched a "pastel" wood turtle and so far it is doing very well.

You can also veiw pics of all the wood turtles and all the other turtles I work with here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/loon1103

Thanks for sharing. Two weeks ago one of my clutches of Carolina Diamondback's hatched a white terrapin. The first I have ever seen. It too died shortly thereafter. It is always interesting for us to see such aberrations and would be neat to preserve the individual in captivity, but as we have learned first hand, nature has a way of taking care of these aberrations from the start so as not to pass on these genetic mutations. I will post the pic of the hatchling white Diamondback shortly.

-JG

Color is the last thing to develop. I don't think this was any special color morph like albinism or leuc., etc. It looks like that process failed to complete properly or the turtle tried to hatch too early before the process could complete. It is also possible that this was a deformity linked to a "fatal" gene as sometimes happens in other animals.
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PHWyvern

The egg was 62 days old when it began hatching, pretty old for an insculpta for me. Mine for the last 5 years have hatched out in 45 to 50 days. I have dealt with many turtle eggs that stopped developing early on and when opened the animal has it's complete color only it appears washed out or faded. It may not be genetic but we'll see for sure next year when these females lay again. It's amazing how it began to hatch and then died. The pastel I hatched is doing very well, and I will keep you all posted on it's status.

Also, does this wood turtle have any deformities of the head of any kind? We have hypothesized that the gene that codes for color may be linked or at least located at or near the same locus of the chromosome to the gene that codes for proper head formation. We have seen dozens of Loggerhead Sea Turtle eggs that failed to hatch, white individuals who in turn have deformities of the head such as crossed-beaks, cyclops, two heads, etc. My white Diamondback that expired had some minor abnormalities on the head as well. It would be interesting to hear from others who have experience with white or aberrant individuals to help understand if these are possibly linked.

Thanks,

JG

This particular turtle does not have any deformities. It's head, legs, shell and tail are all intact and appear to have developed normally. Two years agi I hatched a Terrapene carolina carolina that was all white with no eyes and it had what appeared to be a horn like object projecting up from the snout much like a rhino or triceratops. I still have it preserved and will have to get pictures up of it.

Thanks for responding. Those deformities you mentioned have also been seen in the loggerheads. If you can get a picture up that would be excellent. There are ones who do turn up perfectly healthy looking as well except for their aberrant coloration, but it is not the norm. Most of the white turtles expire before hatching as part of the natural selection process, but every once in awhile an otherwise perfect white one will hatch and make the crawl to the ocean, most likely to meet its fate of natural selection soon thereafter.

-JG