Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I came home from work this morning at about 8 am and checked on my incubator and about had a heart attack when I thermometer displayed 119F!!! My thermostat crapped out during the night.
A few of the 46 eggs still look normal but most have sunken in a bit and still others have also discolored in spots. I am hoping that the still normal looking ones will make it but then I may have kinks to deal with if they hatch.

As soon as I saw this I placed all egg containers out side where the temps where in the low 70's to cool them off. I dug out a new thermostat had it set and placed the eggs back in the incubator. I am hoping that they were not at those temps all night and it will e interesting to see if anything survives.

that sucks... sorry to hear it...
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"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings

Ouch.
I have a feeling things aren't going to end up good.

I'm sorry that happened.

Hopefully some of them make it.

My project this winter is going to be to build an incubator. I'm thinking I'll do dual thermostat - one set to temp plugged into one set a few degrees above temp.

Right now my hovabator is plugged into a el cheapo thermostat to switch off when ambient room temp hits about 78 but I have nothing to protect against the hovabator itself going bad. I've got less than a month though for both clutches, but I'm paranoid nonetheless.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 16 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - 14 eggs (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I was in week 5 myself so I had about 4 more to go. On the brighter side, I checked on my females and 2 of the 3 are gravid again so thank goodness for double clutching!! For next year I will either spend the $$$ for a thermostat with the safety feature that cuts it off if it fails or incubate at room temp of 78-80.

Oh man!! That really sucks big time. I sure hope it wasn't at hose temps for too long. Let us know if any make it.
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there are many ways to achieve desired incubation temps without actually using an incubator. It's stories like yours that just reaffirm my personal desire to not use an incubator.

Have you ever thought about setting the egg containers at the highest spot in a warm room ( that is what I do in my snake room)? You can usually achieve a temp of 76-83 depending on which part of North America you live in and how low you set your air conditioner in your home/apt. You might also try using the top of your refrigerator, it can achieve the same desired temps. I personally use a small space heater during the cool months when I still have eggs cooking and get outstanding results. Bottom line is the eggs will hatch at cooler temps...it just takes longer.

Sure am sorry to hear about your clutch losses.

I agree completely. I have even heard of people using their old VCRs as heating elements. I just put them in the snake room and as the temps increase in my house I move them lower and lower until the are on the floor in August. A temp gun will be useful to find the right temps in your room. Unless you are cooking python eggs I don't see a reason for a incubator. Variation is good for the eggs but not extremes.

Jason

exactly!

In all fairness to incubators - stories like this are tragic but are the exception and not the rule.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 16 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - 14 eggs (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Dude, I'm really sorry to hear about that. It's nothing but frustrating and saddening to hear that.

I'm with Russ' school of thought on incubation. I'm not saying what you did was bad or anything obviously, TONS of folks make incubators, and they work out fine. Your story certainly is the exception to the rule...
I've just always believed the more complex the set up is, the more room there is for malfunction in something.

My snakeroom stays at about 83* so I plan to just box up any eggs I get and stick 'em on a shelf. I dont even intentionally heat the room. I have a computer and a 22" CRT monitor that generate all the heat in there hehehehe. I just close off the HVAC vent in the room.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

You are the second poster today that I have heard this from (the other one called me on the phone). I gave advice here sevral times to stay away from incubators. I hear this news every year.

Just put the eggs on a shelve and be done with it for 60 days. It does not matter if the temsp go between 65-85F. If they do some will just take a little longer to incubate than 60 days. Why risk and incubator when most large breeders don't.

ANyway sorry to hear of your loss.
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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

One reptile shop in West Palm Beach use to keep a 55 gallon aquarium with about six inches of barely moistened peat moss as an incubator of every type of egg they happened to see drop. They had snake eggs as well as knight anole, curly tail, etc all in the same tank. It was an interesting display set up in a fairly typical warm store. The peat was a mold inhibitor, and it seemed pretty simple and it actually worked for all kinds of eggs.

Incubatorless approach from now on. I was checking room temps and they temps stay between 73-79 degrees so I guess this would work out ok with the double clutches I have on the way.

...........thermostat were you using?