help with a home made incubator

[madison.s]

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!my leopard gecko layed 2 eggs and i am trying to make a homemade incubator and i am having some problem. I have the tank,the container,a heater(not a underwater one),a heating pad as well and the eggs. how can i set this up to work right.thanks for your help.

[BoidKeeper]

Until you get it built just put them into a margarine container with damp vermiculite and keep them in a warm room, like 80-82.
I've not built an incubator using the materials you have but I have seen them. What I saw was a small coffee can filled with water and the heater put inside of it. That is put in one corner of the aquarium and then filled with damp vermiculite. A pain of glass was then laid on top to hold in heat and humidity. It was ofset just a bit to allow for air flow at the corners. Use warm water in the can and to dampen the vermiculite to help it come up and stay up to temp faster.
So how did this happen?
Cheers,
Trevor

[Tim and Julie B]

What kind of heater do you have? If it is for fish tanks, but not fully submersable I would use a large pickle jar to place it in. They are generally deep enough to accomodate the heater. Place it inside your tank and adjust the thermostat to a few degrees above your intended temperature. Place the eggs in lightly moistened vermiculite, perilite or spaghnum moss inside a deli cup or small tupperware container, with holes poked into the sides of the container, not the lid. Place them into the tank and cover with plastic wrap leaving a 1/4 inch gap uncovered for air flow. Then use a piece of styrofoam as a lid with a few holes poked in it. If you don't have styrofoam try heavy cardboard. Good luck with the eggs:D

Julie

PS>This is why it is important to have an incubator already made at this time of year. If you have males and females together you MUST expect eggs:D Just a friendly reminder:D

[Gregg M]

Well what you can do is, put your eggs in a plastic container with a cover...... Use perlite as an incubation substrate...... Use equal weight of water to perlite....... (ie; 40g water to 40g of perlite) Bury the eggs so only half of it is in the perlite Put that container in the cage with the mom where the temp is maintained at the correct incubation temps...... Ontop of an under tank heater works fine as long as the temps do not fluctuate too much..... I incubated corns like this when I was a kid and it worked out well...... Good luck and get a hovabator when you get a chance..... They are the best for the price....... If you plan on breeding, it is a good idea to have an incubator but when little suprizes come along you can do what I said above...... Also expect more eggs....... Once they breed they can store sperm for an entire season......

Have fun waiting for those eggs to hatch....LOL..... Its like a kid waiting for summer vacation......;)

[VooDooMafia]

I say just put them in a container and put them onto the fridge or hot water heater in the basement. That will be good enough till you have biult your incubator.

As for the materials that you mentioned you should really get a underwater heater as they are easyer to work with.

What I did before I had my hovobators was just fill teh tank with about 3-4 inches of water, place the heater in the water then put some bricks down (on there side) and place a piece of glass accross them. I then cut a piece of styro to fit the top and put small holes in each corner.

This worked well for all my gecko/corn and king eggs for a few years till I got a good deal on a few hovobators.

[madison.s]

thanks everyone for your help. what i had done was put a heating pad under the tank on low(80-85)then put the eggs in a container with soil and moss and put the lid on the container with holes and i put a jar of water in the corner of the tank. i thought that would be ok because i have seen it done like that buy my eggs did not make it. I have had lizards and snakes for many years but wanted to start breeding this year and i guess i was not ready for it and now i feel stupid for what happen. it looks like i should get a real incubator or a under water heater. thanks again everyone. i am not sure if my dragons are gravid and i guess i should figure this out fast because my leo is going to lay again soon.