Photo Gallery :: Our hatchlings emerging from their nest site

[Pam]

Thought you might enjoy this video clip. (It's best viewed with high speed connection and a lot of patience.)

http://www.kenpam.net/pets/Baby-Turtles-One.asx

[Pugness]

that was pretty cool. How could you tell whether or not the eggs were fertile or not? And how long did it take before they hatched? And how many clutches of eggs did she lay before she laid a fertile batch??

[Pam]

We didn't really know whether they were fertile or not but hoped they were as we have 2 males and 2 females. I have only seen one male with one female one time thought they are always pestering each other. That mating was at least a year before these eggs were laid but I have read they can lay fertile eggs for several years after a mating. I believed I waited over 90 days or more for them to hatch on their own but they never came out. After it was about 100 days I could not stand it any longer and began digging carefully and ran into them hatching. I would not recommend digging up a nest but in this case it was fine. I let them come out on their own after they were discovered. Three hatched out that evening and 2 more the following day. I think she only laid one other batch of eggs before this and they were in the water as we were not as aware of her signals that she needed to get out to lay them. She has laid several after but none have made it. It is a rough start for baby turtles!

[steve]

That was some great timing! Missibsu will really appreciate the video

[sonyj]

Thanks for sharing that with us Pam, they are so adorable! Do you still have any of the babies?

[missibsu]

That was some great timing! Missibsu will really appreciate the video

Um yeah! No kidding! That is just awesome. I wish the school that I taught at had more technological capabilities. I'd let my students watch that.

Your turts seem so small. How big are they?

[jn]

THAT IS SOO COOOL :]

[Pam]

Sonyj, We still have four that are now 1 1/2 years old and very healthy. Unfortunately one was a teenie preemie (about half their size) that only lived 5 weeks. It was so sad. We have someone interested in 2 of these and may adopt them out soon. It will be very hard but he can give them a good home and we have so many turtles now - 9 of them.
Missibsu - When they were born I would say there were close to a quarter to a 50 cent piece in size. Now they are about 4 1/2 inches.

[missibsu]

Wow, they didn't look 4 and half. How exciting. I loved the video! I told Steve in his post that he should have video taped it so we could watch. He was right about your timing!

[Pam]

They weren't 4 1/2 inches in the video - only the size of a quarter or 50 cent piece as they were just born! They are 4 1/2 inches now at 1 1/2 years.

[missibsu]

OOOOHHHHH...I was slightly confused, lol. I was thinking that the video was of laying eggs, that is what we were talking about with Steve's post. I get it now! No wonder they looked so small. I just couldn't figure that out. That's still great! They are such cuties!