I used to post here quite a bit but it's been several years. I was goose hunting this afternoon(in IA) and found a couple newly hatched common snappers. One had been killed by something(maybe even stepped on by another hunter, who knows?) and I thought the other was dead until I picked it up and it moved. Our temperature has been dropping fast on the way to winter-not sure if we've dipped below 40 yet but we've definitely had nighttime temps well below 50. The turtle was about 300 yards from the closest water and had lots of dirt on its shell. I haven't looked for an egg tooth yet, but it definitely has an umbilical scar and the carapace is only slightly bigger than a 12 gauge shotgun shell(MAYBE about an inch for any non-shooters). Just wondering if it's normal for them to hatch with weather this cool.
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When do snappers normally hatch?
Replies (3)
Yes, it is normal. Fall is baby turtle season and some eggs may overwinter in the nest, hatching the following spring.
Thanks for the quick answer. Until this one the smallest snapper I have had was almost twice this size, and I thought that was small.
Another question-when does their shell harden? The babies I have kept before never grew much, and their shells stayed soft(not as soft as a softshell but soft enough to be noticeably softer than the big ones.
