Urgent Care :: Help!! My egg shattered!

[Bumby's Mom]

I was candling my egg to make sure it is still alive when I notice that the bottom has a small dent where the egg shell is coming off, so I am inspecting it and decide to not put the egg back in that same spot when I go to put the egg back and the entire egg just crumbles! Nothing is leaking out but I am really worried now. The babies are fully formed and take up the entire egg they are 8 weeks old. Help!! What should I do?

[steve]

Do you mean the shell has collapsed in?

[Bumby's Mom]

No it's just shattered!! I just took a picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/precious014e/1146110614/
I don't know what happened

[xsavingsaturdayx]

I have a feeling it wont make it, sorry.. It's not your fault, so dont blame yourself if anything.

I dont realy have any knowledge on incubating or breeding turtles, so I cant say what went wrong..Keep your hopes up and still try to hatch it I guess, you never know

[Bumby's Mom]

OMG I am so upset Its like the outer part of the shell was jus so thin it flaked off. The egg is still intact. No big pieces have fallen off so I don't know of the baby is ok in there or not.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Dont go off and call it quits yet though. Wait a little while to see if everything runs smooth. Are you sure its not just hatching?

BTW, what kind of turtles are in those eggs?

[steve]

Is the egg still sealed? I would very gently put it back into the incubator in the same position. Were you able to get any results from candling?

[Bumby's Mom]

I don't know if its hatching or not I have never done this before. It is a painted turtle egg. I only have 2 eggs and I am not hopeful for the other one. I just searched pictures and it sort of looks like when they are hatching but in all those photos the baby was almost all the way out.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Then do what steve said and wait it out. I hope everything turns out okay, painters are very pretty

[Bumby's Mom]

The baby is too big now to really see anything inside but I am pretty positive I seen it move. It looks like the egg is still sealed since I can't see inside and nothing is leaking out. Its like a layer started flaking off. Should I still mist them with water or just leave them alone? It isn't in an incubator because my house is hot and humid. It is around 82-83 degrees in here plus humidity (it has been since Nyx laid the eggs) and I read that it was fine to not have an incubator when the room temperature is suitable for hatching.

[steve]

Good question. When was the last time you misted?

[Bumby's Mom]

Just yesterday, I have been doing it daily since they started getting big inside there.

[steve]

If your house is humid, then you don't need to mist too much if at all.

Just came across this:

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/eggfaq.html

IS HUMIDITY IMPORTANT?
The importance varies with species. Those species which produce softer shelled eggs are much more critical in this respect than those which produce hard-shelled eggs. A good example of the former would be American Box turtle eggs which need to be incubated at a very high ambient humidity if they are not to dehydrate. For most hard-shelled eggs, a medium level of humidity is generally adequate. The easiest way to achieve this is usually just to place a damp sponge in a tray of water somewhere with in the incubator itself.

[Bumby's Mom]

Thank you. I probably won't get much sleep so I will be keeping an eye on it. Someone suggest that maybe it had made a small crack and when I touched it then it cracked more. What do you think? I have no idea how eggs hatch or look when they are hatching.

[steve]

Here's another good point:

If an Egg Cracks or Bursts
==========================
Usually, when eggs burst, which can happen, and you didn't do anythying wrong if
the other eggs are fine, you can either do nothing if the crack is
very small (which is what I did with mine just the other day; it has
a very small crack because it was removed surgically) and the
seeping egg white will dry and seal the egg. Just keep the egg in
extra sterile conditions. (Vermiculite is a (relatively) sterile
substrate, or cotton wool.)
I know of people who have sealed cracked eggs with superglue
successfully.
If your other eggs are fine, this may just have been one that
wasn't so good. It happens. And, I also know of perfect babies
coming out of broken eggs.
Most important: keep moist enough, so egg doesn't dry out. Use
sterile water for this egg. I would also separate this egg from
the others.

http://www.turtlecare.net/eggs.htm

Since your egg is NOT leaking, just leave it alone. "Most important: keep moist enough, so egg doesn't dry out. Use sterile water for this egg."

ar, one more on moisture:
"Opinions differ on how much humidity is needed. Eggs incubated artificially are sometimes lightly sprinkled with water on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

On the other hand, some breeders feel that a jar of water placed in the incubator is sufficient. Some use no water at all. Too much moisture will certainly rot the eggs."

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... dex-10.htm