Malaysian Painted Turtle Hatchlings

Back in April, our Malaysian painted turtles laid eggs and you may have seen the video of the eggs being collected and incubated by Keepers 🥚 🐢 We are happy to share that after a 75-78 day incubation period, five baby turtles successfully hatched between July 7 and July 10. Some of the hatchlings were given some assistance emerging from their eggs after staff became concerned about their ability to hatch on their own. The five hatchlings have grown stronger every day since. They are currently living behind the scenes in the Indo-Malaya pavilion where they are growing quickly. These large freshwater turtles are mainly herbivorous and the babies eat the same diet as the adults -leafy greens, vegetables, and turtle gel. These babies have a lot of growing to do as they started out at about 25-30 grams but will grow into 7-20 kilogram adults! Malaysian painted turtles are listed as Critically Endangered in their native Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Their main threats include over-collection of their eggs