I do not use an incubator as such. A bunch of years ago the Barkers(pythons and more) kept pestering me about the benefits of a room. So I built one, and they were right, a room is so much better.

Heres a pic of the last incubators I used,


I made this incubator, as well as every incubator I ever used, dating back to the early sixties.

I hope you realize that an incubator is a snake cage, with shelves and a thermostat to keep the temperature in a small range.

The key to monitor eggs is mass, that is, having a large amount of medium. I use perlite, but I have also used sand, vermiculite, and more. I recomend perlite.

I incubate in the mid eighties. But I have little concern for exact temps. While at most times of the year, its stays in the 83 to 86 range, it does go up to near 90F and down to 80F. I do not care about that and have seen no adverse effects.

I do not check humidity, I check eggs. I could give a poop about what the humidity is, I feel the eggs, if they are soft, I add water, if they are hard, I don't. I know, I am a simple minded person. Hey it works.

My egg boxes are bone dry with no condensation at all. I hatch turtles, torts, snakes and monitors in this manner.

You can put small holes in the lid or not. It doesn't matter.

If you have bacteria or mold, its too late. Both bacteria and mold grow on dead material, most likely in these cases, dead eggs. So if its growing, you have little hope.

I have hatched snake eggs that were balls of mold. But not varanids, its rare to hatch an egg thats not perfect.

The problem with varanids and incubation is, you are better off taking a direction and staying with it. There is no mucking around with methods. Like changing mid-stream.

If you have living fertile eggs, they are easy to hatch, if you have infertile or dead eggs, they are hard to hatch. The problem is many people are trying to hatch the latter, then comment on how hard they are to hatch. A dead egg is not going to hatch under any circumstances. hahahahahahahaha.

If I forgot something let me know. Oh the boxes in the incubator are what I normally use. Cheers

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