Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
Hi all, I just had to perform an emergency intervention to save one of my hatchies, but it did not start out that way... It began as an autopsy.
Yesterday was day 66 of incubation for clutch #1 of the season. One of the eggs that was looking ready to hatch early on Saturday morning all of a sudden turned dark and collapsed on itself on Tuesday. I'm not sure what that means with snake eggs and other reptiles but with turtles, it's a sign that the neonate has actually died at the last minute due to late stage developmental complications and it is not uncommon. Mother nature rarely allows all turtle eggs in a clutch to hatch.
Yesterday at 6pm I decided to leave the egg in the incubator for another day and check when I get home from work, if there's been no change, I'll remove/discard it after opening it to examine what actually went wrong.
Today I got home from work and opened the incubator, I was hopeful but the egg had not hatched and had collapsed even further down on itself, had lost more of its white lustre and had turned dull. I decided that the the little one has unfortunately perished and I'll remove it and open it up to investigate. Bare in mind, I can only see the top half of the egg as it's half buried in damp vermiculite...
I took a large spoon and gingerly scooped the egg up in the position it rest without rotating it and this is the sight I was met with... Not good. A large yolk visible.
Next I very carefully split the shell apart and the embryo slid out still wrapped in the membrane onto the spoon, still and lifeless...
Then to my amazement it used its forelimbs and tore the membrane open and opened its eyes and blinked at me.
Pulling itself completely free from the membrane it instantly became apparent what had happened.
This little one has actually developed without an egg tooth (rare but does happen) and was unable to free itself from the egg. The egg had collapsed down on itself and split at the bottom under the substrate trapping the baby turtle. Unable to free itself it would have asphyxiated in another day and died. Turtles always exit at the top of the egg, this little guy had no way of doing that. I was expecting to find a dead turtle and thankfully (due to my impatience) I found a live one and he's now lubed up with KY gel and swimming in shallow water and will remain this way for at least a week until his egg yolk is completely absorbed. Another 12-24 hours and this turtle would have died, in the wild it certainly would have.
Today is a good day (in my world). Every turtle is important and this little one is a miracle from the turtle Gods.
Yesterday was day 66 of incubation for clutch #1 of the season. One of the eggs that was looking ready to hatch early on Saturday morning all of a sudden turned dark and collapsed on itself on Tuesday. I'm not sure what that means with snake eggs and other reptiles but with turtles, it's a sign that the neonate has actually died at the last minute due to late stage developmental complications and it is not uncommon. Mother nature rarely allows all turtle eggs in a clutch to hatch.
Yesterday at 6pm I decided to leave the egg in the incubator for another day and check when I get home from work, if there's been no change, I'll remove/discard it after opening it to examine what actually went wrong.
Today I got home from work and opened the incubator, I was hopeful but the egg had not hatched and had collapsed even further down on itself, had lost more of its white lustre and had turned dull. I decided that the the little one has unfortunately perished and I'll remove it and open it up to investigate. Bare in mind, I can only see the top half of the egg as it's half buried in damp vermiculite...
I took a large spoon and gingerly scooped the egg up in the position it rest without rotating it and this is the sight I was met with... Not good. A large yolk visible.
Next I very carefully split the shell apart and the embryo slid out still wrapped in the membrane onto the spoon, still and lifeless...
Then to my amazement it used its forelimbs and tore the membrane open and opened its eyes and blinked at me.
Pulling itself completely free from the membrane it instantly became apparent what had happened.
This little one has actually developed without an egg tooth (rare but does happen) and was unable to free itself from the egg. The egg had collapsed down on itself and split at the bottom under the substrate trapping the baby turtle. Unable to free itself it would have asphyxiated in another day and died. Turtles always exit at the top of the egg, this little guy had no way of doing that. I was expecting to find a dead turtle and thankfully (due to my impatience) I found a live one and he's now lubed up with KY gel and swimming in shallow water and will remain this way for at least a week until his egg yolk is completely absorbed. Another 12-24 hours and this turtle would have died, in the wild it certainly would have.
Today is a good day (in my world). Every turtle is important and this little one is a miracle from the turtle Gods.
