Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been having a lot of trouble with fertile eggs dying in my incubator. I believe this is because the temperture is never stable, and seems to go up and down everytime the room temperture changes at all. Does anyone know a good incubator that will be a lot more reliable and can handle air temperture shifts well?
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Corn Snakes: Eden, Mars, Sierra, Lavendar, The Tweedle Twins
Crested Geckos: Parker, Emily Dickinson, Bonnie, Benz, Jude, Cali
Leopard Geckos: Paris, Helen, Annabelle, Artemis, Vesta
Jambea Dwarf Retic: Montague

My incubator is set to go to 90 F during the day and drop down into the mid 70s F at night. And I get up to 100% hatch rate. So I'm a bit sceptical of the unsteady temperature theory.

Adding a few layers of cardboard around the incubator for insulation might be all you need to hold the temperature more steady than it is now.

If you give details of your incubation methods, it might help us close in on the problem. What sort of incubator are you using now? What temperatures are you getting? What medium are the eggs incubated in? How wet is the incubation medium? What sort of hatch rate and fertility rate are you getting now? Etc.

Paul Hollander

In my readings on incubation temps for cornsnakes I have read that temps in the 90 degree range for more than a few hours can cause kinks in the hatchlings. I have read some posts where people dispute this. Obviously you have not found this to be the case since you incubate at 90 degrees. I find this comforting since my first clutch has been through some wild temp swings (none greater than 90 degrees!)and I have been worried!

Joanna

>In my readings on incubation temps for cornsnakes I have read that temps in the 90 degree range for more than a few hours can cause kinks in the hatchlings. I have read some posts where people dispute this.

I'm one of the ones who has disputed this.

I don't know why some babies are born with kinks. But I lean toward the idea of a vitamin deficiency. YMMV.

Paul Hollander

It's interesting because people will say that higher humidity or temps produce more babies with kinks and yet won't breed them on the off chance that they are genetic. You think they are a vitamin deficiency, something that is not genetic either.

I am brand new to all of this but I have had the experience of a hatchling that developed kinks. She was a non eating snake so you could say that she developed the kink from a deficiecy of some sort and I would say that she was born with some problem that caused her to not eat and develop kinks!

Well I will see what happens with my clutch. Unless someone wanted to collect data on clutch temps and humidity from multiple breeders I don't think this issue will be solved!

Thanks,
Joanna

Hovabators do a good job of keeping the temperature stable, (provided the surrounding house temperature doesn't go above the incubator's setting of course).

Humidity is another factor besides temperature which can affect incubation. Too high of a humidity can cause kinks and egg death. Check your humidity and see if that might be another cause.

-Kat
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This Space For Rent

Hmm . . .Good question. . . All this time I've been using my house/room temp with a 100% hatch rate (not counting slugs of course) I keep temps at 84-86 degrees during daytime and 78-80 at night. That has worked for me for Corns , Kings, Bulls, and Indigos for 20 plus years! (Of course it helps to be married to a heat loving South Georgia woman - that doesn't mind a warm house, lol!). But she keeps the master bedroom 10 degrees cooler!

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

I use this Barr Lab's Incubator for my Pyro eggs & my Gray Banded Kings eggs. It's really overkill though. I also have a couple of the $50.00 styrofoam hoverbators (with no fan) which also work fine and are considerably less money..

~ Mike Russo

oops.. sorry aboiut that its not a Barr's incubator,, this incubator was made by Lyon Technologies... i guess i am tired... ~ Mike