This little one took her time coming into the world. The extra time in the egg benefited her with an additional gram of weight. She weighed 22 grams at the time of hatching.
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The second egg started pipping 2 hours prior to this happening. Active hatching time was 20 minutes, which is a vast contrast to eggling #1. This tortoise was 21 grams and arrived 11/15/16.
The first egg began to crack on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 11pm. We watched diligently, checking on it every few hours. Over 30 hours later, we live-streamed the hatching on Facebook. Active hatching took 2 hours.
In Late August, Tilly began acting strangely; she was lethargic, her eyes would swell (indicating discomfort) and she would only eat if hand-fed. We rushed her to the vet for a radio-graph which revealed gas pockets in her intestines. The hope was that between infant gas drops, increased heat and soaks, her appetite would increase. The vet also prescribed OptiOmega, a terrific blend of nutrients which boosts activity and appetite. It worked, but not as it had in the past and not to the degree we were hoping. She was eating more; however, her eyes puffed more frequently, especially when walking. The vet suggested a follow up visit for blood work, but first wanted to take another radio-graph to rule out Tilly being gravid (egg bound.) After a couple minutes, cheers came from the back room. Our vet returned with a large smile and led me to the surgical suite, where an x-ray hung from the lightbox. This was by far the best news we could have received. Not only was the mystery solved, but babies were probably in the future. A couple weeks later, she still retained eggs. It was mid-September and there was no option to induce her. Three eggs were expelled; one simply didn't want to come out. The vet sent us home to incubate the eggs and wait for the fourth. Two days later, Tilly pushed out the fourth egg...then proceeded to step on it. The others were already incubating. Fast forward the minimum 55 days and we're waiting for babies.
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AuthorThe Tort Resort is a Whidbey Island based project dedicated to rescue and rehab of smaller tortoise species. Archives
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