Cheryl & Jim of Virginia, report that their first clutch from 2 year old parents hatched 3 sets of twins. She was delighted to see two heads piping from one egg, but when two more eggs did the same thing, she was amazed.
We have heard of several breeders reporting twin births, but never of one reporting 3 in one clutch. Often twins are much smaller than their siblings, so a challenge for needing extra care is greater for them to survive. These are between 1-2 weeks old now and all eating good and growing. They do gestate the same time period that siblings do, unlike mammals who usually are born early.
In two sets of twins, one is slightly smaller than the other, in the 3rd set they are the same size. One set had the yolk sac still attached, but since have dissolved.
The father of the clutch is a SF/orange x German Giant, the mother is normal phase. The first egg starting hatching May 7, 2004 and by May 13th the 3rd set of twins appeared. There were 19 eggs in this first pairing and 16 have hatched so far, so Cheryl & Jim have their hands full with 19 babies. She has two more clutches from this pairing in the incubator now.
All babies pipped from their own area, one set on one side and the other two sets on opposite sides.
Twins are not rare in nature, they happen in an average of about 1 in 80 in humans, 4% in other mammal and slightly higher or lower in egg layer depending on the species. Multiple twins in a egg clutch are very rare and to have ones that are thriving even rarer.
The second clutch has hatched and there were 2 sets of twins in that clutch. Another clutch is due to hatch around July 1, 2004. Cheryl has added a site with pictures of all the twins on it, so feel free to stop in and check it out.
Re: Twins - 3 sets in one clutch!!
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by HerpMom on Aug 10, 2004 - 11:58 AM
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Congrats on your twins.....glad to hear they are doing so well.
I have simular senario going on, 1st clutch from 2 year old parents. They mated only once and she laid her clutch only 18 days later !! I had 3 sets of hatchout last thursday and today the 4th set is hatching (one is out, the other is coming).
One thing I did take note of is only one set of the twins pipped at opposite ends....the others came out the same opening
