When a turtle made her way into Cortney DiGiovanni’s yard, she thought she just needed a place to sleep for the night. The turtle made herself at home in the pile of compost for the garden that was sitting in the driveway. DiGiovanni put out some food and water to make the turtle’s stay more comfortable and didn’t think too much of it.
The next morning, the turtle was gone — but she left behind something for the family to find.
“We noticed a lot of birds and animals around the pile of dirt,” DiGiovanni wrote on TikTok.
@cortneytayla If anyone has any suggestions and tips on how to manage the next 60 days we would love to hear them 🫠 I have them in a plastic container that I drilled some holes into on the bottom and sides and covered them about 5 inches below the surface with the same dirt they were in. I have them in the garage slightly covered with the lid making sure the soil says moist and the temp in the garage is around 80 degrees. Hoping that once they hatch we can relocate them to a local pond but until then we are worried that other animals will attempt to eat the eggs since we have a lot of hawks in the area. So please send tips 🙃 #fyp #wildliferescue #turtlerescue #turtletok
She went to take a closer look to see what all the fuss was about — and discovered that the turtle, whom DiGiovanni’s son named Croissant Boston, had laid 38 eggs in the family’s driveway.
DiGiovanni was flabbergasted that Croissant Boston had taken advantage of her generosity and kindness like that. She knew she couldn’t leave the eggs in the driveway, where they were vulnerable, so she researched what to do and got to work.
“I gently placed all 38 eggs into a container, working very gently with a paintbrush to not damage the eggs, along with keeping them in their original orientation to not disturb the embryos,” DiGiovanni said.
While DiGiovanni’s son desperately wanted to keep the eggs until they hatched, his mom knew they’d be safer with someone who knew exactly what to do.
@cortneytayla Croissant Boston updates! 🐢💚 If you are new here a snapping Turtle that we lovingly named Croissant Boston (shout out to my 3 year old) laid 38 eggs in our pile of compost so we worked to save the little eggs before they were eaten by pretedors already showing interest in them. We worked with Megan at Maple House Rescue to incubate the eggs and we will be back in about 60 days to release them back into their natural habitat with her! Reminder to drive slowly out there because its egg laying season so you may want to move your piles of dirt sooner than later 🙃 #turtletok #turtlerescue #croissantboston #wildliferescue #fyp #turtleupdates
“We worked with Megan at Maple House Rescue to incubate the eggs, and we will be back in about 60 days to release them back into their natural habitat with her,” DiGiovanni said.