Gen X tort eggs

Unhappily, the X is for exterminate.

We can't let any more of these mature and hatch because no one wants the babies, and hundreds of the tortoises, perhaps thousands of them, await adoption. None of the captive ones can be used to repopulate the desert habitat that is "gone, baby, gone", and the ones here have a disease brought in from Africa we are told.

Since these three eggs were already laying on the surface of the raised bed, it means the embryos are dead inside anyway. They get too cold at night to survive it. So, Poko Ono has been busily digging and laying eggs on the sly; we have found the nest and will dig it up later.

But aren't the eggs beautiful little things? We can't keep them because they will go bad and explode. We tried to incubate a whole nest that got disturbed by a marauding night visitor, and some of the eggs exploded inside the incubator. Ewww what a smell!

We won't be incubating those that are left in the nest even if we could sell the babies to recover the cost of a new incubator to replace the one we had to toss (PU!), and we wouldn't dream of selling babies. The adoption situation is so dire. If you like these little fellows, contact the Turtle and Tortoise Society of San Diego, and they will send you a news letter about themselves and turtle and tortoise care. If they are on the web, I'll link it HERE in a minute.