I have always used vermiculite with water for incubating eggs for the past 25 years. This is the first year I tried the "no substrate" method. I will continue to use it as I had very good results. A lot less worrying about the substrate drying out, too wet, etc. Everbodys method is different. What I did is I put about 1 1/2" of dry pearlite into my incubation boxes. Then I sprayed the substrate down very heavily just to reduce the dust that you create when mixing with water. After that I would add a little water and mix. I would continue to do this until I could see the pearlite just start to lift off the bottom of the box. At this point the mix was about the texture of thick soup.
I then placed the plastic egg crate into the box.(Flo. ceiling light cover/diffuser)I cut the egg crate a little large so it would wedge into the box just above the substrate. Some people use pieces of pvc pipe as legs for the egg crate to sit on. I then put the eggs in the boxes. If your worried about the eggs rolling you can cut some smaller pieces of egg crate and prop the eggs against that. I had a total of three eggs go bad amongst all my clutches, one of which was attached to the other eggs with no negative results to the other eggs. The only other observations was with one one clutch. All the eggs started to dimple before hatching (which is normal) except for one. This one was super big almost to the point of bursting. It had gotten to a lower spot and had been absorbing water. It still hatched fine, but make sure the egss are above the mix. Hope this info helps.
Bruce Delles c/o Twin Cities Reptiles
CELEBRATING OUR 28TH YEAR IN THE RETAIL REPTILE BUSINESS

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