Not fertile

[suttysue]

It is with great sadness that I have to report NONE of my 5 eggs are fertile, not one, zilch, nada!
Have candled them today and there is nothing but yolk in any of them, no dark spot ( embryo) no vines, nothing
They are due to hatch early January. Should I leave them or dispose of them?
To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. Does this happen a lot? These where the second clutch of eggs I've had from Mrs T this year. Think I need to have a word with Mr T.
Oh well if it happens, it happens looking forward to seeing them walking round the garden in the sunshine come spring/summer.

[Gordon]

Sorry they are not fertile but it does happen I seem to get more unfertile eggs from my horsfields and my Tunisians but it varies even my hermans and golden greeks lay the odd infertile egg so yes it does happen
Are these her first eggs

[emma_mcraf]

That's a real shame Sue. Perhaps it'll be third time lucky for Mrs T and she'll lay some lovely fertile eggs in the spring/summer.

[Pussygalore]

it took a couple of years before Sid and Tootsie my old Ibera started to have fertile eggs neither he (late teens) or she late 40's had mated before so I assumed that was the reason. However once they 'got the knack' I had an average of 20 eggs per year and mostly all were fertile and hatched, I don't know how old your female is but could she just be to young?.

[Hanako]

I think my five eggs are not fertile either. It is now 62 days....and it doesn't show as if anything is in there anyway. But another 9 is due in a month's time so I will see.

Not sure what to do with the first five. Should I look in?

[Hanako]

Originally Posted by suttysue

It is with great sadness that I have to report NONE of my 5 eggs are fertile, not one, zilch, nada!
Have candled them today and there is nothing but yolk in any of them, no dark spot ( embryo) no vines, nothing
They are due to hatch early January. Should I leave them or dispose of them?

I would probably stick them into incubator anyway. Just in case. Wait those 60 days... Better safe than sorry.

[sandy]

Originally Posted by Hanako

I would probably stick them into incubator anyway. Just in case. Wait those 60 days... Better safe than sorry.

Always a good learning curve to incubate eggs, as its not easy to see veins etc .

[Hanako]

Yesterday I opened the first five eggs. They were in the incubator for 62 days and I was pretty sure that they are infertile. I was surprised that all five of them was rotting inside. Last year when I had one infertile eggs and I opened it after 10 weeks in the incubator, the egg looked like any 'normal' egg that you leave in fridge for too long - there was egg white that was a quite runny and egg yolk that was a bit too thick. This time in all five of them the egg white and egg yolk were sort of mixed together, grey-ish and the smell was awful. Did I do something wrong this time? Why was it rotting after just 62 days? Is it that the tortoise started developing, then died and then started rotting (as opposed to the last year one when there definitely was no tortoise)?

I also candled my remaining eggs that are due in a month's time and it seems that some (one or two) don't have any egg yolk at all, and another one has a very tiny egg yolk. In one of them the egg white seems to be very runny and the egg is very light in comparison to its size. Does anyone know what this means? Am I doing something wrong, or are my girls lacking something?

The eggs are from 4 different tortoises, 2 of them are older but the other two had eggs first time. My males are also on the young side so I was wondering whether they still don't have it figured out yet.

[sandy]

Originally Posted by Hanako

Yesterday I opened the first five eggs. They were in the incubator for 62 days and I was pretty sure that they are infertile. I was surprised that all five of them was rotting inside. Last year when I had one infertile eggs and I opened it after 10 weeks in the incubator, the egg looked like any 'normal' egg that you leave in fridge for too long - there was egg white that was a quite runny and egg yolk that was a bit too thick. This time in all five of them the egg white and egg yolk were sort of mixed together, grey-ish and the smell was awful. Did I do something wrong this time? Why was it rotting after just 62 days? Is it that the tortoise started developing, then died and then started rotting (as opposed to the last year one when there definitely was no tortoise)?

I also candled my remaining eggs that are due in a month's time and it seems that some (one or two) don't have any egg yolk at all, and another one has a very tiny egg yolk. In one of them the egg white seems to be very runny and the egg is very light in comparison to its size. Does anyone know what this means? Am I doing something wrong, or are my girls lacking something?

The eggs are from 4 different tortoises, 2 of them are older but the other two had eggs first time. My males are also on the young side so I was wondering whether they still don't have it figured out yet.

It sounds like your male is not doing the job:0)
Because they would be fertile if he was.
What temps are you using to incubate the eggs?
What size is the male in comparison to the female?

[Hanako]

Originally Posted by sandy

It sounds like your male is not doing the job:0)
Because they would be fertile if he was.
What temps are you using to incubate the eggs?
What size is the male in comparison to the female?

There are several males, but they are all only 3 years old. I think they may be a bit too young, although they are far too willing to mate! They are big enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, the only older male is my Big Boy who is now 11 but as he is the smallest, I don't think he was able to do the job because the bigger (and unfortunately young) males would be the ones that would get the females. Natural selection I suppose - the bigger gets the rewards.

I incubate at 32 degrees.