Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello- I have been waiting patiently for my normal Ball to lay her eggs, had incubator ready, but not for this. She laid 12 large eggs today. They are stacked pretty high and my Hovabator will not close without touching eggs. For now, I put some styrofoam on sides to raise lid but there is a two inch gap where air will come in/go out. May not stay ideal temp...Any suggestions would be appreciated. Dave.

if you caught them fairly early you can pull them apart. just be VERY careful.
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Dave
Phila, PA

www.DNReptiles.com
Myspace/DNReptiles
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They are pretty stuck together

send her to me since you aren't ready for large clutches of eggs yet, lol. You can always make an incubator out of a cooler, to bricks and a water heater, but that should have been done already
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Josh & Krysty Hutto
J&K Reptiles

Various Ball Pythons:::

1.0 striped vanilla
1.0 spider
1.2 Citrus Ghost and hets
1.2 Albino and hets
2.3 het Pied
0.6 50% poss het pied
1.1 Pastel (male has additional gene going on with him)
a bunch of normal female breeders
a bunch of normal female holdbacks and several rescued normal males

0.1 columbian boa, she's a feeding monster, controls my
over production of rats, lol
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa, another rat eating monster
1.1 corns

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

You have a couple of options:

1) Go to your local pet store and ask if they have any styrofoam shipping containers. These are the ones they normally receive fish in and they normally throw them away.

2) Go to Walmart or grocery store and see if you can find a similar sized styro cooler.

3) Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get sheets of styro insulation. It normally comes in a packet of 5 about 36" X 12" and create your own expansion rings.

4) Build a box for the Hovabator top.

Depending on where you are located, you can put your eggs in your garage until you get the incubator ready. Here in FL, it's 92 degrees and 1000000000000000% humidity.

Just don't freak out. The eggs are much hardier than most give them credit for.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

if need be you can let momma incubate them naturally.

Take some dental floss and use it like a saw. Hold the eggs firmly don't let them turn as they come free. A gentle sawing motion should do it. I have done this many times and never lost an egg. Good luck. Claude

Very good ideas

tepid water may help lossen the eggs, but make sure water isn't too hot or too cold....85F probably be a good temp to aim for. Don't soak the eggs in teh water though, just mist it around the seams...using the dental floss next may make that work better.

Building an incubator doesn't take very long.

For now, I suggest taking your hova-bator, put it into a slightly bigger plastic container (or styrofoam) and close the lid, This way it heat and humidity shouldn't escape as much. Though it will be harder to ensure temps don't get to hot. but a good temporary measure, as the hova's thermostat should keep the temp from getting too hot...
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PHLdyPayne

My eldest son took an unused styrofoam cooler and made 4 wall extensions. We left incubator for a couple of hours and when we re-checked, we were at optimun temps! Will post pics soon. Dave.

I would forego the Hovabator altogether...the small size is one of the multitude of reasons I ended up hating mine.

Look in your local newspaper and on www.craigslist.com for someone selling a mini-fridge -- it doesn't even need to work. I paid $30 for mine. Then buy some heat cable or Flexwatt and string it up inside. Connect to a thermostat, and voila -- you have a homemade incubator.

Good luck!
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

hovabator once was to cut foam to fit in the gaps and then seal the joints with electric tape, worked like a charm it was just a pain to dismantle for cheking/air. also, make sure the heating element (wire part) is not touching or touching as little as possible the actual egg container ad i believe this could cause some funky hot spots. but yup that worked when i wasnt ready so just a suggetion.