Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone used Hovabators for monitors with any success? Does anyone have a suggestion of a good incbator?
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2.2.1 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Lemon Pastel Ball Pythons (NERD Line)
0.0.1 Water Monitors
1.0.0 Pastel Red Tailed boa Het. for Albino
0.0.2 Yellow Ackie Monitors
And Counting...

i think many make their own incubators.

ive seen people use this before. http://www.kingsnake.com/salceies/Incubator.htm
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1.0.0 arg. b/w tegu
1.1.0 white's tree frog- popeye, jack
0.1.0 southern painted turtle- ms.tortle
0.1.0 crested gecko- crimson
1.0.0 pinto hedgehog- dante

Yeah I've heard that alot. Its always the same though. they just go down the list of what they put in their incubators, most of the time i don't even know what these items do?

Its probobly very simple and straight forward, and im just making it more comlplicated then it is.

If anyone has any spare time and could post in detail about how to make an incubator, and how it all works that'd be great.
thanks
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2.2.1 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Lemon Pastel Ball Pythons (NERD Line)
0.0.1 Water Monitors
1.0.0 Pastel Red Tailed boa Het. for Albino
0.0.2 Yellow Ackie Monitors
And Counting...

Reptile incubators are no more and no less then a reptile cage set at a single temp. They only RAISE the heat to a certain temp. They do not cool or actually control the heat, they ONLY limit the heat. Just like a reptile cage. For instance, if you have a snake cage or monitor cage and take out the snake or monitor, and change the temp controller to 85F, now its a incubator. Everything is the same except you can take out the branches and substrate and add shelves. Its a box with a door and a heating element and something to raise the temp to a certain temp.

Hovobators are only a little tiny reptile cage, and as such, it makes them very poor for varanid eggs. They're ok for some other reptile eggs, just not varanid eggs. There problem is size. Varanid eggs and some tort and some chams eggs, take a very long time to incubate. Often over several seasons and up to over a year. This means there WILL be temperature changes outside the incubator. Reptile eggs cannot change temps quickly, they can indeed change temps slowly. This is controled by the mass of the substrate. The larger the mass, the slower the temperature change. Varanid eggs appear to be very sensitive to temp change, so its even more important, that change is only allowed very slowly. So you need mass. Mass equals size, hovabators are small. As in not suitable.

In the states, the eggs are normally not placed in the incubator, but instead some sort of sweater box or deli cup(wrong, no mass) This sweater box is the actual incubator, as it has the moisture. It also has the substrate, perlite, vermic, sand, spha moss, coco puff parts, etc. This substrate is what holds the proper humidity and proper temp. Its the incubator.

The importance of mass, mass covers errors or quick changes in temperatures. For instance, you can use a deli cup to incubate varanid eggs and you can put them in a hovabator, but then, you must not allow any changes in room temp, accidental or otherwise. The problem is, accidents happen. They happen all the time. Consider, the reason you put eggs in a heat box(aka incubator) is to prevent temp changes. You can hatch eggs on a shelf in your house. But most do not do that, because that is risky, kids, weather changes, dogs, loose monitors, etc. They place eggs in a incubator to lessen the changes of accidents. So if thats what your doing, then hovabators are only slightly better then a shelf. They are too small to hold a temp for any period(if some accident happens) They are too small to hold anything safely, any little kid, little monitor, little dog, little event can flop them on the floor, so to speak.

Understand, folks will babble about their hovabator, or ice cooler incubator, etc and as usual, they will have no consistant success. and they will have had lots and lots of accidents(lost eggs and clutches) Its very much like going to your local Native american casino and picking the game with the lowest winning percentage and playing that game. Then saying, yea, but I won once, it was on a wednesday about four or five years ago. hahahahahahahahahahaha Of course, I will have to mention, my approach comes from having varanid eggs being incubated since the summer of 91, without missing a single day, that is, 24/7, 365, for nearly 17 continuious years. Which means, I want something reliable.

Sorry for the long incubator rant, but as usual, its a bit silly to me. An incubator is only a reptile cage without the cage furniture and without the reptile. Break down the pic of one of my incubators.

Its also not key to hatching eggs, the real incubator is more important. Which is the box the eggs actually go in. And it needs mass to prevent lots of accidents(quick temp changes) The eggs go in the box on the shelves in this incubator, They are of real importance.

In the past I used these incubators(heat boxes), in this pic. I use to make(manifacture) them and sell them at shows. But somehow, people did not buy them. We sold them for $350. You may be getting the idea of why I think monitor folks are not the smartest nail in the box. Heres why, monitor folks have a defeatist attitude, they will spend the bucks or monitors, cages, varied diet, waterfalls, nesting, misters, rain cyclers, etc etc etc, but not spend a dime on the only important part of breeding monitors, HATCHING THE EGGS. If you do not hatch the eggs, the rest is absolutely of no importance. As in, THIS is the most important part with breeding monitors. hahahahahahahaha how funny is that? now look at your little hovabator and ask yourself, in lew of all the work you went thru to get these eggs, do you want to risk that on this little bubble? Cheers and remember, this post if for all of u's not just U