Instahatch #58 was shipped 1,258 miles to Gilbert, Arizona. This Sulcata Instahatch egg was shipped on 4/22/19, delivered on 4/23/19 and place in a 7 egg tiny incubator. The day after it arrived the outer shell starting to crack, but looked liked drying mud more so than a pip. So the owner cranked the humidity. A few days later, nothing happened. Then on 4/26/19 the egg was manually opened a little by the owner. She noticed that the Sulcata was still in its Amniotic membrane. Over the next 24 hours, she was able to witness what happens inside an egg days before hatching. The membrane started to dry up, The baby tortoise started to breath real oxygen. So inside the egg, this would happen as well. The membrane would dry up, it would start to breath oxygen from the air sac. Combined with absorbing its yolk sac, it would have enough energy to break the egg, which is pipping. This is not an ideal hatch, this was very stressful for me and for the owner. This has most likely happened to a lot of tortoise breeders, we have learned from other breeders how to manage it. this lady did an amazing job caring for this premature hatchling. I am uber impressed with her husbandry. This little Sulcata is still in the incubator absorbing the remaining of its yolk sac.
Nice. I had to help a hatchling were the siblings hatched a week earlier so I broke the egg and found that it seemed that that the sack around the baby dried out and was very unelastic so the baby could not break it. It seemed that the baby was dead.
I had to take the membrane/sack away by hand. It soon started to breathe and seemed alive after all. The baby weighed only 8 grams and is now 6 months old and weigh 18 gram. The smallest Testudo hermanni I ever got. The baby is now active and eating after being buried in the substrate for over 2 months.
Awesome