"It's Alive" was the message I sent to my son this afternoon along with the first photo below:
Later on, I sent this second photo to him, my daughter and my wife:
My current male Hermann’s Tortoise was hatched on either July
29, 2011, August 9, 2011. I had one egg hatch on each of those days from the
first breeding of my then male and my then & current female. That male has
since disappeared out of my backyard. My current male Hermann’s, one of those
original offspring, is thus about 5 ½ years old. Well, he finally hit a home
run.
My female laid five eggs back on November 6 th and one was
broken and a total loss from day one. While I was pretty certain that four were
fertile, I lost them all due to too much moisture in the incubation
substrate which caused the shells to over absorb water and crack. That was a hasty
novice’s error, done while I was in a hurry to moisten it before going away for
the weekend. I am no novice but we all can have a brain fart. The female laid
again either later in November or in early December, that time I think it was three
eggs. They went into the incubator and I was careful never to add to much water
to the substrate. One was infertile and went bad within a month or month and a
half, it too had cracked but likely from whatever foul smelling stuff was
inside festering away since it had been infertile. Another seemed fertile and
candled with a couple of veins showing but then ceased growing and died for
whatever reason. The last one was candled as fertile after about a week or so
and remained seemingly healthy.
That last one started to pip this afternoon. The baby tortoise
at first stuck only a single foot through a hole it had made in the shell.
Later this evening, when I ;last looked in on it, the baby had a nice sized
hole in the shell with its two front legs, head and some of its shell exposed.
It may stay like that for up to a few days before it feels ready to leave the
shell behind and start its life out of the nest (incubator).
I am pretty darned happy even though it is only one baby,
because it means my little 5 ½ year old male is not shooting blanks any longer.
I am going to give him and the female a week without food and only water, then
put them both into brumation for two months. That should assure he fires live
loads later in the spring when I allow them to mate again. For all I know, the
female could be gravid now but I want to give her a break and brumate her
regardless. She can use the rest, I am sure of that.
As for the new addition, I will be setting up an individual
tank for it.
All the best,
Glenn B
