Incubator question

[sean8172]

Lol well mine are at 40 days also. So they have been expanding. By the way mold is sometimes caused from water dropping from the lid on too the eggs just gently wipe it off with a paper towel. Doesn't mean the egg is bad. I don't see why you can't use soil or sand. I just know the eggs absorb the water in the substrate so whatever is in it they could potentially absorb. But they do it in nature so why not just use a syringe to inject the substrate every few days to keep substrate damp. Also I added a baby burp cloth to the bottom of my incubator it brought my humidity up from like 50 to 85% , just a tip incase your humidity is not hugh enough

When you say " I added a baby burp cloth to the bottom of my incubator", you mean outside the bins holding the eggs? The bottom of my incubator is water. Should I place the cloth in the water? A picture of your incubator would help me tremendously, if that's too much to ask. Pretty please?

 

[ilovebeardies]

Lol I will take one when I get off work. Its on the bottom of the incubator itself I have a hovabator, I believe.ill post pics later

 

[sean8172]

My incubator is home made. The bottom is water, so I don't think that would work for me. Maybe I'll invest in an incubator for a future clutch

 

[ilovebeardies]

Well my incubator is a styrofoam one the bottom has about an 1 inch water heater coil in on top in the lid I put the rag over the water on the bottom then a metal grate over top , my trays of eggs sit on top of the grate. My incubator is on LLL reptiles I think it is for $40-50.00 bucks has worked fine once you get the thermostat regulated.

 

[sean8172]

So something about like this?

That has about 2" of water in the bottom, with an aquarium heater in the water, and a reptile "under tank" heater taped to the lid. Are you saying put the cloth in the water, under the bin holding the eggs?

 

[ilovebeardies]

So something about like this?

View attachment 9391

That has about 2" of water in the bottom, with an aquarium heater in the water, and a reptile "under tank" heater taped to the lid. Are you saying put the cloth in the water, under the bin holding the eggs?

yes I put mine in the water it increased my humidity by like 30%! I've been trying to upload pics for like a half hour the app isn't working right at the moment. I'll keep trying

 

[ilovebeardies]

Make sure its soaked in water. Those heat mats don't really get to hot what have your temps been? I've heard of people using fish tank heaters in them as well. Are you using a thermostat?

 

[Swistable]

I have holes in the container I have my eggs .. should I change it? Im afraid they are getting too much water. .. my humidity will not go down im freaking out its staying at 88%-91% .

 

[Swistable]

I know thy dont need water themselves other than damp subsrate .. the pet store got me to buy plantation soil which I did change to that. But humidity os not lowering and if I have holes doesn't more humidity enter??

 

[ilovebeardies]

It lets the air flow through containers so they don't get to hot I've heard the higher the humidity the better you just don't want them sitting in water. The beardies absorb water through the egg is what I've Read.

 

[ilovebeardies]

I know thy dont need water themselves other than damp subsrate .. the pet store got me to buy plantation soil which I did change to that. But humidity os not lowering and if I have holes doesn't more humidity enter??

put maybe a mesh wiring on top of water raise egg container above the water an inch .

 

[sean8172]

Temps usually are between 84.5 and 89ish. It's the humidity I'm worried about. Almost half the eggs are partially, or completely collapsed. There still looks to be some signs of life in them though, so I'm letting them go.

 

[ilovebeardies]

Definitely try what I said then also keep making sure your substrate is damp

 

[sean8172]

I switched to vermiculite today. I'm going to measure the bottom of the incubator and see if I can find something to put there. Right now, the aquarium heater is holding up the containers. It appears to be doing a good enough job, but I don't think the humidity is high enough. I put a terrycloth towel in the water, to see if that will help. Looks like I might be ordering one or three of those incubators here pretty soon.

 

[ilovebeardies]

How many eggs do you have? I have 22 eggs in mine I could easily fit another stack on top each container so it can probably hold about 50 eggs total. If the towel is saturated your humidity should definitely go up and the vermiculite was a create choice im sure you noticed it holds water really well I just moisten might once a week and really its still pretty wet when I do that. The only tricky about my incubator is getting the thermostat set because its not digital so u have to use a thermometer and tune it over a day or so.

 

[sean8172]

I have 25 eggs, but the cooler I used doesn't have much area horizontally. It's maybe 15"x8" at the base. Is wider at the top, but not a huge amount. I'm thinking I'll make an incubator out of a larger cooler rather than buy one

 

[ilovebeardies]

Cool, im not crafty like that or I probably would have

 

[sean8172]

Oh my, it is beyond easy. The only "crafty" part was cutting the hole out for the window. I could have done it myself, but my uber crafty cousin wanted to do it, so I let him.

 

[ilovebeardies]

Lol well seriously I mess up pasta when I boil it so yah im just not that good at certain things lol

 

[sean8172]

I'm going to make a bigger incubator soon. I'll try to record it so you can see how incredibly easy it is.