Chelodina longicollis clutch #3

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Finally my girl is laying her 3rd and final clutch for this season. She laid the 1st clutch of 10 eggs on October 27 which went 9/10 viable and are due to hatch any day now, a second clutch of 8 eggs on November 24 which went 5/8 viable and 3rd clutch going down now.

I've been trying to get her to lay this clutch since December 24. I had her out in the nesting pit for 2 hours on December 24, 25, 26, 31, and nothing... Today it's 33 degrees here, I observed her acting restless in her aquarium, so I went and hosed the pit down good at 2:30pm put her out at 3:20pm and she was digging her nest in 10 mins.


25 mins later the eggs were laid and the nest chamber back-filled and she walked off the nest.


Time to go digging very slowly and cautiously... Chelodina longicolis pack their nest chambers down hard making excavation of the delicate eggs extremely tedious.


All located and removed, 6 in total. Not bad for a 3rd clutch. That takes her total to 24 eggs for the season.


Set up in a plastic incubation tub in vermiculite and water at ratio 1:1 by weight. 5 good standard sized eggs and one tiny little runt.


Into the incubator with her other 2 clutches... Clutch #1 was due to hatch any time from December 31 so they won't be far off.


Now we wait and see how many if any of the 6 new eggs will be viable.

Hope everyone's season is coming along nicely.

Cheers.

 

[Fall guys]

if you didnt see her nesting, how would u have known? the ground doesnt look to rough where she covered it up

is it also normal to double or even triple clutch?

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

if you didnt see her nesting, how would u have known?

She'd be about half her weight prior to being taken out.

the ground doesnt look to rough where she covered it up

In a captive river sand nesting pit like this it's very easy to see where she's nested as the ground is packed down flat. In the wild, it can be hard to locate a nest chamber.

is it also normal to double or even triple clutch?

Totally normal for this species to triple clutch, sometimes they will lay a 4th if it's not too late in the season, generally a 4th clutch will over-winter before emerging in Spring.
[doublepost=1578184456,1577950455][/doublepost]Day 3 of incubation and the 5 normal sized eggs have already banded with the little runt egg showing no signs of viability yet.


If that egg turns out to be a dud I won't be disappointed. I had 2 runts hatch last season that were smaller than 5c coins and whilst they were successfully reared and sold off, they are extremely difficult to feed at that size.

One of the little runts from last year's 2nd clutch.

 

[user 23122]

That’s one hell of a penny turtle. Poor little bugger would get smashed by a gudgeon at that size

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

That’s one hell of a penny turtle. Poor little bugger would get smashed by a gudgeon at that size

Mate, it'd get smashed by ants as soon as it emerged from the nest.

 

[user 23122]

Yeh couldn’t see it lasting long in the wild be interesting to see how large it would get in quality captive environment

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Yeh couldn’t see it lasting long in the wild be interesting to see how large it would get in quality captive environment

Same as any other normal hatchy mate, just like a premi human baby, they grow up just fine.

 

[user 23122]

You still running that 4 by 4 setup you had years ago on aft I loved that setup

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Yeah mate, it's a custom built beast, I hope I never have to move it again though. Weighs over 3/4 of a tonne. It's the centrepiece of my second living room... my TV rarely gets turned on.

 

[user 23122]

Spent many cold beers looking at that tank

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Spent many cold beers looking at that tank

Muttered plenty of choice words trying to catch turtles out of it too... was an oversight designing a tank with those dimensions when I'm only 5'9"... can't reach the bottom or the back of it from any side and the turtles well know it. Haha but it's dimensions are necessary for courtship and breeding so the positives outweigh the negatives. Lol
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@Friller2009