Land turtle eggs: hatching and care

[wtr-time]

Mother turtle wandered for days, visibly stressed, digging everywhere, but in the end she did it: she laid her eggs. And now, what to do? The eggs of land tortoises are arranged with great care by the mother. Her instinct, in fact, leads her to choose the best positions, with well-drained soil and the right temperature and humidity gradient.

So, how can you handle your eggs? Here are some tips for you.

First of all, some premises:

• Your land tortoise should live outdoors, on the ground. Also, never breed turtles on paved surfaces. The specimens that do not find suitable places for the deposition, in fact, can go toward the retention of the eggs and die.
• Land tortoises, in the days before the deposition, assume an abnormal behavior, but this is normal. Restless, your turtle will dig everywhere trying to do more holes and will behave in a very strange way, walking for hours in unusual times. Do not worry and leave it quiet, especially at the time of the deposition.
• Land turtles can have fertile eggs, fertilized by the male, and sterile eggs too. For extraordinary mechanisms, refined with evolution, land turtles seem to know how to recognize the sterile eggs and lay them on the surface. Not all the eggs left out of the hole, however, are sterile: sometimes, in fact, the land turtle may not have found a suitable place.
• Females can lay fertile eggs even five years after mating. Mother tortoise, in fact, can keep the male seed inside his body and develop fertilized eggs in the following years. In short, your land turtle can generate baby turtles even if they have not been mating for years.

Protect your land tortoise eggs

If  you want the eggs to develop naturally, you can just protect the area. A simple cage, for example, can keep predators away and remind you of the presence of the nest. The cage will also keep the newborn turtles safe and allow you to locate them immediately.

This precaution, then, will protect the eggs from adults. Land turtles, in fact, do not have parental care: the attentions of mother turtle end at the time of the deposition. After this phase, the parent completely disregards her eggs and could go back to digging in the same spot, destroying them all. Also for this reason, an upturned cage can be an extremely useful device.

Do not overturn the eggs

Remember that turtle eggs can not be overturned. The eggs of the birds contain thickening of the albumen that keep the yolk in the center and allow the germinal disk to always stay in the upper part.These thickenings are completely absent in turtle eggs: if you rotate the egg, then, the embryo would die. In reality, the egg can be handled during the first two days of deposition; after this period, any overturn can stop the development of the egg forever.

This is why many breeders mark a small cross with a pencil in the upper part of the egg: in this way it is evident which part must always be on top.

Pay attention to the temperature and humidity

Time of birth of the land tortoises

The incubation times of turtle eggs are extremely variable: temperature and humidity, in fact, have a decisive influence on the development of the embryo. The hatching times, even, may be different for the eggs generated by the same deposition: the first of your baby turtles can pierce the egg a couple of weeks in advance of her sisters.

A very fascinating aspect of the turtle egg is its extraordinary adaptation to adverse environmental conditions: if it is too cold, in fact, the embryo stops its development and waits patiently for the right temperature.

Generally, you can consider about 90 days of waiting for the eggs developed naturally and just over 60 days for the eggs placed in the incubator.

Also, remember that at the time of birth, the baby turtles are extremely delicate and it may be useful to adopt some special precautions (here is a related post: “Baby turtles: what to do in 6 steps“).