incubator problems!

Bartman · 07-18-04, 08:11 PM

My darn incubator keeps going crazy temperature wize. I think its because i keep it in my room and if the a/c stops then the temps sky rocket to about 88. These are leopard gecko eggs btw. I am trying to keep them at 82 for females, but it keeps going all over the place from 82 to 85 id say..I cant seem to keep it steady...well it was for the first week and then i dont knwo what happened..seems to be the weather change and all

What would you guys say is the best room to keep an incubator in (im using the inch of water, brick and rubbermaid with vermiculite and submersable heater method) My room has most the tanks in it so the room alone is at around 80..

Is like a washroom or open area in the house better? or a closet?

thanks! the eggs are still white so what does this fluctuation mean for the eggs? they look very healthy

and im so mad i didnt see my female lay eggs and they collapsed..i only have these 2 from her so far...

crocdoc · 07-19-04, 01:15 AM

Your best bet is to put your incubator in a room that is a few degrees cooler than the temperature you are incubating the eggs at. Unless you are using a professional incubator with cooling capabilities, or the incubator is phenomenally well insulated and the temperature of the room goes up only occasionally, if your room gets warmer than your incubator you are going to experience spikes in temperature.

We can't tell you which room to put your incubator in, for only you would know the temperatures around your home. For what it's worth, I keep my incubator in my garage, for it is cooler and more stable than my home, especially in summer. I have moved the incubator up into my place for winter so I can keep an eye on the eggs.

NiagaraReptiles · 07-19-04, 06:27 AM

Fluctuations like that probably mean very little for Leopard Gecko eggs. They are tough as nails. If it's happening during the first few weeks of incubation, there's a good chance your temp sexing will be affected.

If your room is sitting at 80°F and you want females, I would just put them in a deli cup on a shelf or something. I've hatched many of the "cooler" gecko eggs in this fashion (Giant Day Geckos, Standing's Day Geckos, Leopard Geckos, Pictus, etc)

Good luck,

JonK

Bartman · 07-19-04, 09:07 AM

Yea my incubator, well the heater, broke so now im keeping it inside a just a plain dry tank but it stays at 82. For now I am going to just leave it in my room because its the only place that is at 82, but i need to go buy a submersable heater asap

Thanks for the replies! Ill try the garage, or basement i was thinking, when i get some more eggs and the heater

Will · 07-19-04, 10:57 AM

The garage or basement would be a good idea. Like crocdoc mentioned, look for a room cooler than your incubation temp and one that is stable temp-wise. That tends to be(especially now with hot days and cool nights)basements. I don't know how to incubate leos, but the shelf idea may work as well as long as it's warm enough.

Also, as I understand, temperature fluctuations are not nessesarily a bad thing with reptile eggs(in fact some say it is a benefit to the embryo's development), so long as they don't go outside their specific 'safe' ranges.

Bartman · 07-19-04, 03:58 PM

The lowest and highest ive seen it go was 80.1 and 89.8 ish. But most of the time 82-84. This high's and lows occured one one occasion about 2 days ago.

Will · 07-19-04, 09:59 PM

That doesn't seem too extreme to me, I would expect them to be fine, but I don't know how to incubate leo eggs and don't know how that would affect the sex of the babies. Certainly, I would expect them to still hatch anyways...

Bartman · 07-20-04, 05:33 AM

So now their is no way for me to know what they will be right? I just have to wait until they're old enough to see what sex they are, IF the hatch!

I candled them yesterday and saw viens sp on both eggs and a little dark thingy, im guessing is the embryo, so the still look good

NiagaraReptiles · 07-20-04, 10:34 AM

They'll hatch, unless you dry them out

There is never anyway sure way to tell the sex of a Leo until they are of an adequate size. Temp sexing works, but is not 100%.

From what you've posted previously, I would guess that the odds are in your favour for females.

Best wishes,

JonK

Bartman · 07-21-04, 01:28 AM

Thanks again..you guys have been much help. Like usual

I just really hope these hatch, they will officially be my first fully "dont myself" breeding project. I hatched some turtles out before but the female was already pregnant.

Im very excited!