Embryos may encounter changes in temperature as incubation progresses. Given that the thermal sensitivity of growth and development tends to decrease over the course of incubation, variation in thermal conditions during early incubation may have lasting effects on these processes even if sustained warmer temperatures occur later. In this experiment, I began incubating snapping turtle eggs in two groups at 20°C then increased temperature weekly by 1.0°C or 2.0°C, respectively, for five weeks until reaching final temperatures of 25.0°C or 30.0°C, respectively. Two additional groups of eggs were incubated at constant temperatures of 23.5°C and 27.0°C, which are equal to the respective mean temperatures experienced by the eggs in the two changing temperature groups. Samples of embryos were staged, and wet and dry masses were measured, at 25 days (when temperatures in the changing temperature groups reached the temperatures of their corresponding constant temperature groups) and at 49 days into incubation (after embryos in the changing temperature groups had spent two weeks at their final temperatures). Embryos from the changing temperature groups were both smaller and less developed than their counterparts in the constant temperature groups at both sampling intervals. Hatching occurred later in the changing temperature groups, and both live mass and carapace length were smaller in the higher changing temperature treatment (20 to 30°C) than in the 27.0°C constant temperature control. These findings suggest that slow growth and development due exposure to low temperatures early in incubation cannot be readily compensated for by higher temperatures later in development.