Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading an article that said you can make an incubator out of a cooler. Has anybody used a cooler incubator to incubate corn snake eggs and how does it compare to other incubators?

Does Hatchrite live up to its claims of being the perfect incubation substrate?

What is the best way to prevent maggots?

I've used the cooler method and it's fine. I've also used no incubation and hovabators. The drawback with a cooler and/or hovabators is that they elevate the temperature, but do not have a cooling mechanish if the temperature gets too high.

So if you're incubating eggs in the low 80s and there's a heat wave which elevates the temperature to let's say 90 degrees, you could have problems. Many people think this leads to babies with kinked spines. I've seen it happen more than once.

If you have a cool place where you can put your incubator, this won't be a issue. I've never used hatchrite, but have heard nothing but good things about it.

Tim

Third Eye

When the hot part of summer comes, I put the hovabator on a timer so that power gets cut in the morning and doesn't kick back on until evening. If the heat wave is enough to drive indoor temps above 84 - I add some ice packs to the hovabator and that does the trick of keeping it cool enough inside that the eggs do not die.

These aren't big ice packs - little squares.

Two 4qt shoeboxes fit in a hovabator - I put then around the base of the shoeboxes (which sit on the wire screen).

It also helps to have the hovabator set up in a room on the north side of the house, as those rooms ambient will be several degrees cooler than the south side.
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You said you have used no incubation. What would be the high and low temps that would be appropriate. I am in Daytona Beach, FL. Temps are getting up to 86 degrees now, but having lows of 65, and lower this weekend. By the time I have eggs, if in fact that happens, temps should be leveling out to lows of high 70's and highs around 90. Of course it's not going to get 90 in the house and probably average around 78 degrees inside.
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Gypsy

Are those indoor temps?
One thing you can do is use a large quantity of incubation medium.
Large quantity will act as a thermal capacitor stabilizing the temperature somewhat as it takes longer to warm and cool.

King eggs probably shouldn't be allowed to get above 84 - I try to keep mine at 80 to 82.
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I decided my old sig was too big.