more eggs

My RF Acorn dug a nest last evening at about 6:30 p.m. and by 10 p.m. was covering it up. This morning I gently lifted 3 eggs from the fairly shallow hole. I have them in my incubator in a box of vermiculite. Keeping fingers crossed, it will be five months of waiting. Acorn is the adult tort that was a gift from Chris Curtis and I thought it was a male. Fooled me, eh?

COOOOOOL !!

Awesome! Alice, your house is turning into a tortoise factory.

The three redfoot eggs are still viable and I'm keeping fingers crossed. They are due to hatch in the middle of February. And I'm probably jinxing the hatch by posting this.

Getting very excited to see what happens with the eggs in one month. They have not turned soft or rotten. I see a shadowy spot in two of them but that doesn't necessarily mean the third egg is bad. My goodness, the thought of having five baby redfoots in all is overwhelming.

On another subject, the tort table is so handy and easier to get to the tortoises to clean or feed/water. One thing I discovered is to put a small space heater under the table as well as on top. The torts are more active in the daytime since I've done it.

Also eager to meet and listen to Mike Pingleton in April. He is in Peru right now.

No hatching yet. Eggs laid on Sept 18 and it's been 5 mo. so if anything is going to happen it should be soon. The real scientific research dedicated professional tortoise keepers/breeders would be appalled at the incubation methods and I may get transgender babies. LOL The temps have ranged from 80 to 84 to 86 degrees, up and down, so the baby sex determinators are probably really confused. If I keep incubating eggs I'll have to get one with an automatic thermostat. Stay tuned.

I need a better way to candle the eggs than a flashlight. Help! I have a sinking feeling about the eggs.

Alice,

Cut a dime size hole in the middle of the bottom of a shoebox.

Set the box, upside down on a table.

Plug in a very low wattage (15 watts or so) light bulb and lay

it under the shoe box directly beneath the hole.

This way the light bulb will be a few inches or so (whatever the

height of the shoebox) below the hole.

Do this in a very dark room.

This is an old time chicken farmer's way of candling a lot of chicken

eggs in a short period of time.

Hope this helps.

I hope you find the eggs are OK!!!

Ooh my goodness, I thought I had posted on here that one of the eggs hatched. I have been on Facebook so much I sometimes forget to read this forum. Apologies to everyone who has already heard this news.
One egg hatched on Feb. 27 but as of today no action with the other two. I am soooooo curious and tempted to see what is going on with them. This new baby is very tiny and I think smaller than my older two torts when they hatched. I put damp spagnum in one end of the hatching box and the little fella is buried in it. He seems to be moving around just fine and I will transfer him to a different box when I get back on Monday. Auntie Janelle (my daughter) will be caring for my redfoots while I am away at Quartz Mtn. for a 2 day ladies campout. That's one bonus of keeping reptiles, most of them can go a day or several without any attention. I'll send some pics later but they are on Facebook.

CONGRATULATIONS ALICE !!

Not sure when the juvie torts are supposed to start eating live food but put a few mealworms in a jar lid and set it down in their habitat. One of the torts was not the least bit interested but the other one was very curious and attempted to bite one. It spent a good 20 min. watching the mealworms move around in the lid but never did fully eat any. The two juvies have very different personality traits, one is more active, alert and curious. The other is sleep, eat greens, drink and sleep.
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Very cool Alice! Congrats! Love baby torts