My first Baurii baby hatched in a cupboard!

[Torterra]

I could not make the eggs that my three striped females laid to hatch. Many weeks they were in my eggbox, home made incubator. I never throw things that seem to be alive away.
I had advice to put eggs into a diapause. Take them out of nice warm incubator and put into a chilly place. In the end it seemed I had nothing to loose. I have a cool cupboard with more or less constant temperature, around 20C, sometimes lower. I put the 8 'older' eggs in one cosy plastic box on the damp vermiculite and covered with wet sphagnum moss. And put it in the top shelf out of my sight for few weeks. I knew i am doing the right thing. And did not check it every day.
Today i had a strange urge to check how cool eggs are doing. I took the container out and opened it.



There was a empty very neat egg SHELL!!! And nothing unusual. 7 other eggs were laying happily around undisturbed. Mind you this is my first ever reptile/ egg I ever hatched. I new he was somewhere inside. I had to take out all other eggs and dig well to find



Can you see it?




Continued my excavations and found a bean she was 20.3C and moving. Must be very cold for her!



Now she is in here, with one external ceramic heater lamp.



Kirkie, how do you keep your newborn three striped? Do you have a heater and how deep the water.

[Kirkie]

Congratulations, thats awesome.

My hatchlings go into plastic tubs. 30" x 12", I have a heat mat under half the tub. This is on a thermostat set to 28C. The water is literally 1CM deep at first. I put lots of sphagnum moss in so the whole thing is more like a bog than a pool. I use pieces of curved cork bark as hides. As they grow (which is quite rapid) I make the water a little deeper.

[herriotfan]

Congratulations!! You must be chuffed. Good luck to the little chap.

[emma_mcraf]

Fabulous and huge congratulations.

[Geomyda]

Great news. Welcome to the coffee bean turtle world. These charming turtles are so well suited to captive breeding. Their size and character are simply great.
Hatchling size, which too me is so reminiscent of the coffee bean suggests the names of Kenco, Costa, and even Starbucks!

[dragonzuiko]

Excellent great news one of my common musks hatched and burryed itself at the bottom of the vermiculite, it took ages to find him

[Torterra]

Thank you all! His yolk sac still not absorbed, I hope he will be ok. He was cold when he hatched, only 20.3C I dont know why he got out. Maybe it was time.
I put a mat strip under the tub he is in, but I dont have a matstat. Where you put the probe, in the water?
WHen he should start eating? He hatched 4 grams. Tiny.

[dragonzuiko]

I have got a half of the heat mat under my hatchlings, i use a thermometer in the water to keep a eye on the temps, with these cold spells the heat mat dont get too hot. just keep a eye on the temps.

[Torterra]

I have a photo of her plastron with yolk sack, here:



I think it was bigger to start with, but I cant tell for sure. SHe is sitting under the moss in warm water all the time.

[egyptiandan64]

The yolk sack is all gone. That bit thats left is the membrane that surrounded the hatchling. Right now it's dead tissue and you can clip that off with a pair of sharp scissors. The little one should start eating soon.

Danny