At 7:30 a.m. I looked over at Speckles, our smaller, female turtle, in the (unfortunately - overnight - dirty) water receptable in their dry terrarium, and she was laying eggs! For several years now, Speckles has periodically laid eggs around summertime. The first she did this soon after we got her. We know there's always a chance they're fertilized, because of some Speckles and Greenville's activities (although supposedly turtles need to be hibernated to breed, and we don't do this). Over time, in hopes that we can still generate babies, we have developed a more and more elaborate incubation system. First, we try to pick up the eggs gently as soon after being laid as possible (this time was great, because I got some of them seconds after she laid them - six eggs in all! - although she was in the water and this can waterlog them). Then we put them - facing up the same way they were laid (trying to dry or brush them off a little if necessary - in something called "perlite" in a big tupperware, which we in turn place on bricks in one of our old smaller aquariums (this one was the frog/fish/snails one, ironically - see "Hair cut"), after filling some of the aquarium with water and putting in a little water heater that - after we place a cover over the aquarium - serves as a heater/humidifier. It seems that the eggs aren't to get too dry or too wet. So we must wipe the water that the humidifier generates off the tupperware top once a day or so (and check on the eggs). This has in the past been an unsuccessful ritual in that we've never gotten babies (and I'm not sure what we'd do if we got them). Sometimes Speckles steps on the eggs or eats them (eck!) and sometimes we don't notice them for too long (even once on the floor - Speckles must have laid one during her night out). Still, this time feels good in that she's almost never laid this many eggs and we've almost never intercepted them so soon (I think Stephanie first dealt with this challenge - when she was home in Tallahassee with the dog coming down with epilepsy!? Still, it turns out caring for turtles is an art not a science, in that all of the vets/pet store employees/books/Web sites we consult say different things. Much of our current routine comes from a pet store employee at the Feeders Supply pet store near my old apartment in Phoenix Hill (her name starts with B- she's not working there anymore). Maybe we'll get luck this time and wind up with real baby turtles!
5 comments:
The photos are out of focus! Use the macro setting or don't get too close!
Good luck with the baby turtles. Keep us posted. How do you feed baby turtles???
Nancy
They're not really out-of-egg babies yet. And, in fact, the eggs already look not great. They have a little darkness around them where they were moist and got burrowed in the peralite (and so didn't get entirely dry). And almost all of them now have depressoins in them - which isn't a good sign. Maybe they got waterlogged even in the few minutes they were in the water dish with their mom. Also, maybe I should have tried to dry them more before I put them in the permalite. Stephanie and I actually did some research about what you do - including what you feed them - if the eggs hatch, but I'm afraid I'd have to revisit my books and some Web sites on this. Unfortunately, it looks like once again I may NOT need to be prepared for that this time.
That previous comment should say "perlite" - which is this white grainy, powdery stuff (that does or doesn't absorbe the moisture?). We seem to have a camera manual in Spanish and maybe Portuguese only. I'll try to find the pages on "macros" and see if I can interpret those pages.
Wow - look at all of these macros. I went to the Kodak Web site, which eventually led me to the English-language instructions for the camera, which helped me find the macros. The trouble is - you've got to be able to remember some of them - because, in real life, you don't necessarily have a couple of minutes to look for the right one. - plus you may have noticed that Stephanie and I are starting to figure how to mix things up with pictures and text within indivdual blog entries.
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