Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heres my first clutch of the year and the first clutch by my beautiful female Childrens. The babies were born Mar 9. Ten days early and doing fine. (were schedualed for Mar 20) Unfortunately there were complications with incubation (gotta love the hovabator) and I only hatched six out of a potential nine. I was excited for this pairing because of the extreme contrast but wasnt sure what to expect. It seems obvious now which parent had an influence on each baby.

Keep in mind that my female is A NORMAL CHILDRENS. Just a very nice one. Not a morph.

Im not planning on keeping them.
Brendan

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Without INTEGRITY and HONESTY what else have you!
Brendan Saffron

What were your biggest challenges with the Hovabator? Thanks.

Congratulations on your new Childrens? When are you going to attempt first feed? I heard Children's hatchlings can be difficult feeders @ first. Please, keep us posted. LOL!

reako45

Hovabators arent bad. Alot of people like em. The biggest downsides are useing a wafer switch and also keeping the top of the eggs humid enough (depending on what kind of eggs U R hatching-colubrid eggs are more tolerant).

A problem I dealt with was having too much water in my vermiculite. Too much H2O causes mold sooner. Its ok to get some mold...in small amounts, as it will not realy threaten the other eggs. But when an egg dies and starts to mold the mold can become excessive if theres too much water in the egg box. Im building an exact replica of the incubator shown on AlbinoChondro.com which uses a no substrate method. Working with vermiculite kindof sucks.

Hovabators also dry out the top of the eggs. Since the heat is coming from the top then naturaly its hotter on top. I had an egg directly on the top of the clutch that wasnt touching the moist vermiculite at all. A solution that didnt work so well for me although is successful for others is too place a damp paper towel over the clutch to help with upper humidity. You dont typicaly want an egg to directly absorb water but if your eggs are drying out on top then you can lightly spray a paper towl and lay it over the clutch.
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Without INTEGRITY and HONESTY what else have you!
Brendan Saffron

Here are some updated pics after thier firs shed.

Brendan
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Without INTEGRITY and HONESTY what else have you!
Brendan Saffron