Sunday, May 25, 2014

Newest addition: Meet Russian tortoise baby #1 from egg#2!

After 64 days of incubation, the first of my Russian tortoise eggs hatched this evening! I had already checked on the eggies in the incubator this morning, and there was nothing to see. When I briefly shone the flashlight in there this evening, I was surprised and delighted to see this:

Baby#1 made its appearance out of egg#2!
I carefully opened the incubator and took baby and egg out of the incubation substrate. She had a bit of egg shell stuck on her face, so I dripped some water on her head very carefully, and it came right off.

14g of cuteness!
This little one has all the parts it should have (2 eyes, 4 legs, 1 tail), and a few extra scutes (scutes are the little square-ish partitions in the shell). Extra scutes won't hurt her in the least, they just make her unique.

Bright eyed and wriggly!
After weighing the wee one and showing her to the hubby and the kids, I carefully placed her in a little container with a moist paper towel, and put her and her egg back into the incubator. She will spend a bit of time in there, and will then move into a nice enclosure where she will grow and explore!

My first Russian tortoise hatchling
I am so proud that my favorite female tortoise Timmy is now officially a Momma... and hopefully there will be many, many more baby tortoises to follow over the next 100 years of Timmy's life! :)

UPDATE: Baby#1 is now out of the incubator, and in the closed-chamber enclosure I've set up for the babies.
Spunky little baby#1 basking

I think she knows she is cute!

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