Reptile & Amphibian Forums

today, exactly day 55, incubated at 82-86 degrees on Hatchrite media, the painted turtle eggs started pipping. There are 4 cracked shells, but this is the first one with it's head all the way out.

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

photo with quarter to show scale

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

belly shot, notice the yoke belly button not absorbed yet, I expect this will be gone and sealed up in a couple days. Do you see the egg tooth?

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

5 have cracked the egg now, including one of two that had caved in severely during the first week that I did not expect would hatch, so now I am optimistic that all 12 will hatch.

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Congrats! Way to go for your first turtle hatch. Hopefully you get 100% hatch rate!

Thanks, they have all 12 (100%) cracked the shell now and heads sticking out, 5 are completely out of the egg, with 7 still to crawl out. I will post a group photo when they are all out.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Congrats for sure on the hatch rate. Ill be waiting for those pics

Here they are, introducing the Dirty Dozen, fastest tiny little western painted turtles west of the Mississippi!
I will keep them in this tub for a few more days until their belly buttons are completely absorbed and then they will be moved into a small well established aquarium with a floating log and 40watt light overhead, with a small heater keeping the water at 80-82, when they get a bit bigger I will lower the water temp. to 76-78.

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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Awesome! Cute Lil Buggers Congrats

Thanks, they are a blast to watch, it's amazing how fast their tiny legs go, considering the just crawled out of an egg, talk about hitting the ground running. It will be fun when they start eating too.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Oh how nice. Do you keep the parents out doors?

No they are CB not CBB, the eggs were laid in my friends backyard and we dug them up and 100% hatched and they will be released back in his pond next spring headstarted, which should dramatically increase their odds for survival, not that they are rare or endangered, they are very common and we see large numbers of them around here. We may possibly keep 1 or 2 as a pet and raise it up?
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

So how were those babies doing after all this time?

Hey guys,
been busy with work and hunting seasons so haven't done as much "cruzin" around the forums lately. All 12 of the baby painteds are doing well still, they all ate very well for a couple months, but some have slowed down in the last month or so for winter, so some are getting much bigger than others. I took a short video of them on my blackberry the other day, now I just need to figure out how to put it on Youtube so I could share that with you guys, they are cute as a button. It's interesting how varying the growth rates are, even thought they all have plenty of opporotunity for food.
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Jeff Benfer
gartersnakemorph.com

Right on glad to hear they are doing well. if you get the video up ill be looking forward to watching it. best wishes for this holiday season