I don't have as much experience with this as some of the other posters but here is my 2 cents for what it's worth.

For the past several years I have been sending a clutch of eggs in a Hovabator with my kids to school for their classes to hatch. I use the standard picture window hov with a helix - the eggs go in an Iris shoebox with damp vermiculite - the shoebox is put in the middle of the hov with a few water bottles surrounding it to help stabilize temps. Plug in helix and we are good to go - my kids know how to monitor eggs and check to make sure the substrate remains moist enough. With this set up we've only lost one egg and the snake was well developed but deformed and most likely going to die under the best of circumstances.

I would concur replacing the bottom portion of the Hov is probably the best way to go - but not 100% essential - the heating element gets rather hot and even on the proportional it doesn't adjust quickly enough for my comfort. Which is why I center the eggs in the middle away from the heating element - any buffer you can get away from the element is good.

Also I would recommend keeping it in a room where temps are pretty stable.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons

nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

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