Saturday, September 21, 2019

HeadStart

My days have been filled with company and volunteer work and a few meetings. While I know that being active is very important in retirement, I am looking forward to some downtime before my 22-day trip that is also filled with stuff!

This post should go on my other blog, but I just posted something seasonal there, so I will write about it here.

Reptiles lay eggs in many different areas of the wild.   I have seen them move the gravel from the side of a busy road to lay their eggs.  I have come across them laying eggs at the edge of a hiking path in the forest.  This year one of our box turtles decided that the compost pile would be perfect with its summer warmth. The eggs usually hatch in late August and early September. Hubby was flipping that good earthy compost a few weeks ago when he found this



He is a scientist after all and realized he had torn an egg and induced an egg hatching before its time! Thus a section of my kitchen was immediately converted into a hatchery for one lone box turtle. He avoided turning the rest of the pile for another two weeks!

He brought in the aquarium and filled it with some of the compost.  I got a timed light to replicate the sun.  We added a small dish of water to keep the aquarium moist.


We had some watermelon and put a little of that in the aquarium/terrarium while waiting for the turtle to hatch.  Days went by, but we could see slight movement if we touched the egg, so we knew it was still viable (alive).  Finally, just before the visit of the first grandson, the little guy/gal shoved its way out of the eggshell and crawled to the watermelon and ate!


Hubby cut up a worm or two a day later, and turtle also liked that.  I was told by a friend that they liked grubs but never seemed to find those in our dry soils after weeks of little rain.  We also added pawpaws which are ripening in our woods now, and that was a favorite.  He still had his little egg tooth!


He did well for the weeks that we kept him, and it was hard to let him go out into the world of snakes, fox and whatever else might want to eat him.  We put him back near the compost with a little food, and maybe next spring he will return!  We will not recognize him and I doubt he will recognize us.

23 comments:

  1. "We will not recognize him and I doubt he will recognize us."

    I felt the same way about my son when I set him out to grow up and seek his fortune.

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  2. That is totally cool :)

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  3. What a great story! Well done!

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  4. Cute little turtle. It is a hard life out there, but I wish him/her well.

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  5. Melting the heart!
    I bet he has named you both dad and mom.

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  6. well done! I'm surprised the little guy lived and continued to develop once the eggshell was broken.

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  7. Well done to you and hubby, love the thing that you do.

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  8. We did a similar thing with a giant box turtle a few years ago. When we set him free we only hoped that he found his family and survived. We like to think he did.

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  9. What a wonderful experience for you and hubby - and the little turtle. I do hope he made it out in the wild.

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  10. Never would i have known what to do with such a situation. My hope is he will be fine, but that the mama will pick a safer location next year.

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  11. Good job you two. Saving nature one turtle at a time :-)

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  12. You did well by that little turtle. Fun story.

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  13. I would never have thought he/she would survive after the shell being broken. How exciting that the little turtle hatched and was eating gourmet watermelon and worm halves. I imagine that your grandson will remember that tiny baby turtle forever. Thirty years ago we used to see box turtles around here at least once or twice a year. We live in the suburbs. I haven't seen one in at least 20 years. I hope they are still out there and that I just haven't seen them.

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  14. A heart warming story. So glad he didn't die in your care. I think you have a spam comment above.

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    1. Yes. I will go and delete. I usually get it as time passes after a post and I have to go in an approve comments.

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  15. what an interesting ting for you ... and us.

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  16. Tabor, I love that story... and the pic! We have several box turtles both in front and in back. They are all sizes and come to eat the dry food put out for the feral cats. But we have never seen any eggs... perhaps down by the creek?. I am surprised that any tiny ones make it - as there are so many raccoons and snakes. Kudos to you and your husband for taking in that baby!

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  17. I do hope that little guy makes it. He has quite a fan club after all! :-)

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  18. Well, I was wondering how that went. Nice to get the whole story. Hugs.

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  19. I'm sure the little girlie or fella gave you joy while you had it. As a nature lover, I hope it found its tribe.
    ps. I've missed your stories. I hope I can begin and maintain my blog reading this time around.

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  20. This was such a terrific post. Your husband is an angel. I love happy endings. I'm going to assume that little turtle went on to have a long, happy life.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.