Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone tried building an incubator out of a cooler and heat tape?

By cooler I mean one of the blue ones you'd take fishing...like the pic.
Think it would work?

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-Man fears the beast in the Wolf because he does not understand the beast within himself.

So awesome in fact, that you've been beaten to the punch by thousands of industrious breeders who have done exactly what you've mentioned. Breed on.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

My incubator actually is made from a cooler. I used the biggest cooler I could find, set two bricks in it, filled it with water to the top of the bricks. I used a submersible aquarium heater, set it to 90F and placed it between the bricks. I then placed a plastic grid used as flourescent light covers over top the bricks. My nest boxes sit on the plastic and the temp stayed at 90F the whole summer. I opened the lid once a week for ventilation. It worked very well for me, for the first time since I've been breeding snakes I hit 100% hatch rate this year.

I was going to post some pics but my digital cameras batteries died on the first shot. It was really easy though. I just laid 2' of the 12" heat tape on the bottom, Then I put a bunch of old pop bottles filled with water on top of that. Then I added some wire that I cut off an old bird cage, but plastic egg crate would work too. It is regulated by a herp stat thermostat. I put the eggs in containers and set them in. The bottles of water work as a heat sink and help to stabalize temps.

The biggest drawback is that they are not space efficient as they are not stackable. I would start with something else that is tall, like an old fridge. Plus you can get broken ones for free so It would also be cheaper.

No I've never seen or heard of one but if you can do it let us know the details.

I followed Damon Salcies design from albinochondro.com

I personaly like the no substrate method and have had 100% hatch rate so far. Because it was designed with chondro eggs in mind which require more specific temps its a tiny bit overkill but I love it and wouldnt do it any other way. Its so nice not having to deal with messy vermiculite or perilite anymore. The humidity level is perfect with this method.

Youll probably notice the fish aquarium filter in the center pan. The design called for it with the intention of boosting the humidity and oxygenating the enclosure more. But I found it to be completely unecessary and unuseful. Also, it is not necessary to put water in all three metal pans. I place water in the center pan only and fill the outer two with water bottles to maintain thermal mass. It works really well.
Brendan

7 eggs and a 20 dollar bill ...where can i get a snake like that ?????? lol jk that looks awesome man...

We all want to make money off our snakes whether we want to admit it or not. I didnt expect mine to lay bills. My guess is she felt sorry for me for not proving out and leaving me stuck stuck with a bunch of male poss hets--- so she tried to make up for it by laying a twenty.

Maybe itll be genetic and I can just breed her every year.