Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any good or bad experiences with certian types of incubators and substrates? I am only incubating 2 clutches of eggs and do not know what size or type of incubator is best. Also what is the basic setup that I will need (temperature conrol, thermometer, humidity meter, etc.)? Also when snakes are hibernating does it stress them out open their enclosure? I find myself doing it too frequently, is it a problem?

Thanks
James

First question I am not qualified to answer. I can tell you that I use perilite and I am changing my methods this year...

Second question, it shouldn't hurt to open the tops considering the temps stay cool, the light cycle is reduced and you are not manipulating the animals a lot. You need to refill water dishes during hibernation and we all have to open our cages to complete this task. Should be safe to open it up for a few minutes in my opinion.

Welcome to the forum.

Best wishes,

Steven Owens

I use what I call the "double boiler" method to incubate eggs. I take something like a sweater box and put about an inch of aquarium "pea" gravel in the bottom. I fill it with water just barely below the top of the gravel. Then I take a deli cup or butter dish about half filled with potting soil and place my eggs on top of the potting soil. I place the deli cup on top of the gravel and cover the sweater box with the lid. I try to keep the eggs about 80 degrees plus or minus a few degrees. I open the lid every few days to check on the eggs and aerate the incubator.

I don't think it would harm your hibernating snakes to open the lid to their enclosure every few days as long as you don't disturb them too much.

Hope this helps.

ST

what do you use to keep the temp at 80 degrees? It gets 90 here in the summer to I need to cool the incubator?

Thanks
James

It gets 90 degrees inside your home??

On the hot summer days it gets up to 90 in the house.

you need to run the AC