Neither fertilization and egg laying rates can represent the hatching rate of turtles. It is impossible for all eggs laid by a tortoise to hatch. I believe that people who have raised tortoises want their turtles to lay eggs after they have laid eggs. , try to hatch and witness its miracle from birth, so what should we pay attention to when the tortoise lays eggs?

One, turtle

There are obvious differences in appearance between female and male turtles: male turtles are smaller in size, with black shells, long and thin trunks, and thin tails. Odor; female turtles are larger, with brownish-yellow shells, prominent longitudinal edges, short and thick trunks, short and thick tails, and no special odor. A more reliable and accurate identification method is: in the breeding season of the tortoise, grab the adult tortoise, and when its limbs, head and tail are all about to shrink into the human shell, use your fingers to hold its head and limbs hard to prevent it from having Time to breathe. At this time, the auxiliary bladder water is discharged from the cloaca of the turtle, and then the genitals slowly protrude. If only the wrinkled inner wall protrudes outward, it is a female turtle; if there is a congested and enlarged brown-purple junction outside The sudden ones are male turtles. If they are in the mating season, the male turtles will also have milky white semen.

Second, Reproduction

Turtles generally don't mature until the gonads are over 8 years old, and mature well over 10 years old. The mating time of turtles starts in late April, and the time is usually 17-18 pm. Mating is carried out on land or in water. Turtles lay eggs on land, and the spawning period is from May to August. Before laying eggs, tortoises usually crawl to a place far away from the shore where the shore is more concealed and the soil is looser (the soil moisture content is 5% to 20%) before dusk or dawn, and alternately digs soil with the hind limbs to form a hole (usually the hole is 10 cm deep). about 8 to 12 cm in diameter), and then lay the eggs in the caves. After laying the eggs, remove the soil to cover the eggs, and use the plastron to flatten the soil before leaving. The turtle has no habit of guarding its eggs; another reproductive feature of it is that the maturation of the eggs is not synchronized. Therefore, female turtles lay eggs 3 to 4 times a year, and each time a hole lays 5 to 7 eggs.

When artificially breeding turtles, before the mating period, first select the sexually mature turtles, raise them carefully, and supply enough nutrients, especially feed more protein-rich feeds, so as to facilitate the turtles to produce excellent quality. Secondly, during the mating period of turtles, sexually mature and robust male and female turtles are fed together in a ratio of 1:1 to allow them to mate naturally. During the egg-laying period of the turtles, attention should be paid to keeping the quietness of the breeding pool and the appropriate humidity of the sandy soil on the open space outside the pool, so that the female turtles can lay eggs smoothly. Finally, the turtle eggs should be collected at any time for artificial incubation, in order to obtain a higher reproduction rate and improve economic benefits.

III. Artificial hatching of tortoise eggs

The tortoise egg shell is gray-white, oval in shape, 2.7-3.8 cm long and 1.3-2 cm wide. Under natural conditions, after 50 to 80 days of incubation, the juvenile turtles break out of their shells. However, the natural hatching of turtle eggs is easily affected by external conditions such as temperature and light, and harmed by natural enemies such as snakes, rats and ants, resulting in a long incubation period and low hatchability and survival rates. In order to improve the hatching rate of turtles, artificial hatching can be used. The specific methods are as follows:

1. Egg collection: Female turtles like to gather under grasses and tree roots, and dig soil to form holes to lay eggs, so they can be found according to the softness of the soil at the acupoints or the footprints and claw marks left. Turtle's spawning hole, collecting turtle eggs. Because turtles mostly lay their eggs before dusk or dawn, in order to avoid damage to the turtle eggs caused by the scorching sun, the best time to collect eggs is in the morning.

2. Egg selection: For artificial incubation, fresh and high-quality eggs that have been fertilized should be selected. A sign of whether the egg is fertilized is that the fertilized egg has a smooth, non-clay shell, while the unfertilized egg has a variable size, brittle or pitted shell, and sticky sand. Check whether the eggs are fresh and high-quality. You can observe the eggs against the sun. If the eggs are ruddy inside, they are good eggs, and those with cloudy or fishy odor inside are bad eggs. In addition, malformed eggs should not be used.

3. Artificial hatching of turtle eggs: wooden basins, washbasins and hatching trays (70cm x 50cm x 15cm shallow wooden boxes) can be used for incubators. First, lay a layer of fine sand about 5 cm at the bottom of the incubator. In order to facilitate the development of the embryo, place the turtle egg animal pole (referring to the larger end of the egg) on the fine sand, and then cover the egg with a layer of About 3 cm thick fine sand, then covered with a damp towel, and finally put the incubator in a ventilated place. Temperature and humidity are the keys to hatching success or failure. Too high or too low temperature and humidity are not conducive to the embryonic development of turtle eggs. During artificial incubation, the temperature should be controlled between 28 and 320C, and water should be sprinkled 1 to 2 times a day to maintain proper humidity. At the same time, attention should be paid to preventing natural enemies from harming turtle eggs. In this way, after 50 to 60 days of incubation, hatchlings can be hatched.