a few questions on incubating

[reptile boi]

Hey,
When you gise incubate eggs in a hovabator do you put them in rubbermaids WITH the lids on? If so, then how do you get the right temps? Also, i have been seeing that in some pics from people like jeff favelle who puts his eggs on those plastic egg crates (Theres another word for it but i forgot what it was) and leaves that over vermiculite and i was wondering why do you do this? Does it give you a better hatch rate?



Thanks,
Ben

[Tim_Cranwill]

What are you going to be incubating?

There are a bunch of methods out there and most of them are cheap and reliable. Basically, you want to keep pretty steady temps (temp range depends a lot on what species you're working with) and the proper humidity. It can be very simple and cheap. We just need to what you're trying to cook...

[reptile boi]

Hey Cranwill,
I dont have anything to cook at the moment, but i will probably have some ball pythons and corn snakes to cook. Also, i was wondering, is it just me or is it that you cannot set a hovabator at 1 temp and keep it at the same temp for more than 1 hour? I tried keeping mine at 90F but after an hour it goes to 94 then back to 90 then goes to 89 n so on!! Will this have any effect on the hatch rate?




Thanks,
Ben

[Jeff_Favelle]

Ball Pythons + Hovobators = dead eggs.

Don't use a hovobator for anything except leo/beardie eggs. Build your own. Its cheap.

[reptile boi]

Hey jeff,
How do you get dead bp eggs from hova bators? Also, would you get dead eggs when incubating burm eggs in hova bators?



Thanks,
Ben

[Invictus]

Python eggs of any kind are very unforgiving with environment. You can use a hov for some colubrid eggs, but it is so much cheaper to build one, you are way better off doing that.

[BoidKeeper]

Click on the camera next to my name to see a step by step guide to the incubator that Jeff F helped me build.
Cheers,
Trevor

[reptile boi]

Trevor,
Do you moisten the vermiculite in the incubator? Also, how many holes do u put in the styrafoam?



Thanks,
Ben

[BoidKeeper]

The virmiculite is dampened using the Stockwell squeeze test. I add water until it clumps but no water runs out. No holes in the cooler its self just in the egg box, but not the lid. The styrofoam lid just sits losely on top. If I can be of anymore help pls let me know,
Trevor

[reptile boi]

hmmm, no holes on the lid of the egg box? How come in the pictures there are holes in the lid?




Thanks,
Ben

[KingJaff]

So are you thinking of breeding burmese pythons? but you dont know how to make an incubator? Srry if i'm wrong but thee is an awful lot to take into consideration when owning burm's (i hope your not one of the irrisponsable breeders that dosn't care what happens to there baby burmese pythons) srry to have a rant but there is a problem with ppl and this species and it sheds no good light on herpetolodgy enthusiasts

[tHeGiNo]

I know Ben, and I will contest that he is just planning for the future. He doesn't have a burm, but is considering obtaining a pair and doing the research now.

[KingJaff]

srry i didnt want to scare any body, ust letting you know of the bad press that surrounds big snakes. And any ways research is good, ask away!