A few new arrivals

[animalmad]

well done, lovely pictures

[shaz]

Aww great pics. there so sweet, congrats

[Zen]

Fantastic pics Dave, congratulations xx

[Doodle-Bug]

They are sooooooooo cute, congratulations

[Kirkie]

Originally Posted by Torterra

Super babies! How do you persuade them to hatch? I still have 6 striped eggs incubating, one has a big dark something inside. What humidity do you keep? My hygrometer broke I have damp sphagnum moss on the vermiculite the eggs sitting on, is it enough?

I kept the humidity around 90-95%. A lid (with holes)on the tub containing the eggs makes it easy to maintain. I have read that Baurii eggs are quite resiliant to changes in humidity as they are hard shelled.

After 90 days incubation, if they look close to hatching, I remove the eggs from the incubator, mist them and leave them at room temperature for a few days. If nothing happens, they go back in the incubator and I try again a few weeks later. The return to the incubator prompted one to hatch after the cooling period.

I had one go to 130 days and because I couldn't see any yolk sac I ended up dinking a small hole in the egg at the head end and the baby scrambled out straight away. There does seem to be a huge degree of variance in the incubation time. My winter layed eggs took 90 days, those laid later are just over 3 months and still not ready to hatch. I've also managed to break diapause on an egg laid in January, should be ready to hatch around mid August. I'll have a better idea of the best method once I've got a few more out but the drop in temperature and raised humidity see to be the cue. You also need to know what you are looking at when candling if you're going to bust any eggs open. They're quite tricky to candle after the first couple of months; the egg appears to empty out quite early on.

[Torterra]

Originally Posted by Kirkie

I kept the humidity around 90-95%. A lid (with holes)on the tub containing the eggs makes it easy to maintain. I have read that Baurii eggs are quite resiliant to changes in humidity as they are hard shelled.

After 90 days incubation, if they look close to hatching, I remove the eggs from the incubator, mist them and leave them at room temperature for a few days. If nothing happens, they go back in the incubator and I try again a few weeks later. The return to the incubator prompted one to hatch after the cooling period.

I had one go to 130 days and because I couldn't see any yolk sac I ended up dinking a small hole in the egg at the head end and the baby scrambled out straight away. There does seem to be a huge degree of variance in the incubation time. My winter layed eggs took 90 days, those laid later are just over 3 months and still not ready to hatch. I've also managed to break diapause on an egg laid in January, should be ready to hatch around mid August. I'll have a better idea of the best method once I've got a few more out but the drop in temperature and raised humidity see to be the cue. You also need to know what you are looking at when candling if you're going to bust any eggs open. They're quite tricky to candle after the first couple of months; the egg appears to empty out quite early on.

Thank you very much for advice. I have 6 eggs total and really should do something about cooldown period, the problem is that we are going on holidays in 3 weeks time and my other half who will be looking after all our turtles/ tortoises is not too keen to be a midwife for baurii babies. But I guess he can learn.
I will try my best to take photos of eggs again while candling, sometimes this week.
How safe is it to take tham out of substrate for candling, or shall I leave them and take pics from where they are? I never really picked any of those for inspection, they residing exactly where I put them.
Also, what is the tempereature do you maintain in your incubator? I have a polybox and my temps are very approximate, around 28C. in one container and 29C in the other. All nice and damp. The eggs look alive for me, no signs of disintegration, nice and white or they shouldnt even they are nor fertile?

[anna m]

Lovely looking bunch

[Kirkie]

Originally Posted by Torterra

Thank you very much for advice. I have 6 eggs total and really should do something about cooldown period, the problem is that we are going on holidays in 3 weeks time and my other half who will be looking after all our turtles/ tortoises is not too keen to be a midwife for baurii babies. But I guess he can learn.
I will try my best to take photos of eggs again while candling, sometimes this week.
How safe is it to take tham out of substrate for candling, or shall I leave them and take pics from where they are? I never really picked any of those for inspection, they residing exactly where I put them.
Also, what is the tempereature do you maintain in your incubator? I have a polybox and my temps are very approximate, around 28C. in one container and 29C in the other. All nice and damp. The eggs look alive for me, no signs of disintegration, nice and white or they shouldnt even they are nor fertile?

They're very sturdy eggs so you can pick them up to candle them. Check for a yolk sac first, if there's still one there leave them a while.

Most of my eggs are at 28-29c with some at slightly lower temperatres. They have a different temperature dependant sexing range to tortoises. Below 26, female. 26-28C, male. Over 28C, female.

Got to be honest I've a few eggs that look perfect since being laid in Jan-Feb but I can't get them started. Maybe just infertile but they haven't collapsed, gone brown or mouldy.

[Kirkie]

Torterra,

I took an egg out of the incubator last weekend but nothing happened so I put it back in on Monday. Tonight it's pipped so I'm not sure what to suggest. Mess with their minds seems to work.

[Kirkie]

My mistake, it hasn't pipped at all, the eggs had a few hairline cracks appear and some fluid has leaked out. Theres still a huge amount of yolk to be absorbed.

I had read of these pre hatching cracks

http://www.unc.edu/~dtkirkpa/stuff/bauri.html

But didn't see it in any of the other eggs. Aren't Baurii interesting?