Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm planning on making a homemade incubator and wanted to know where the best place to look for ideas. I remember seeing several on this forum ,but was unable to find them. I was thinking about making one out of a large 128qt cooler, but would appreciate any other options also. I want one that will hold around 10-15 clutches. Thanks in advance. Chris

Shadera there is Jake Wallace's site that might be a helpful.
http://www.jwexotics.com/
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Tim Johnson
RoyalMorphz@yahoo.com
702-672-5101

Ack. That's not me Jason.. I'm not sure who this person is.

im not thinking the cooler idea will hold that many clutches-- last i remember there was a really great detailed post for making the cooler and it held like 3 tubs so MAYBE 4 clutches...

We got suprize eggs from a female we just got in and we slapped an incubator together in an hour. Used plywood, styrofoam sheets for insulation, a piece of flexwatt on a t-stat some water bottles and shoe box tub to hold the egg.

You could easily make one for about 50 bucks if you already have the t-stat and flexwatt.

sheets of styrofoam are 4 bucks plywood is 5.60 a sheet-- could use 3 sheets of each and make a 2x2x? ..... plus 2x4s --

we also had some showerboard which is expensive but thats what we put on the inside -- siliconed the edges and it doesn't look to bad...

~Beth
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Until there are none, Rescue One! Get ready to welcome the new and improved Oklahoma Animal Rescue Group -- Just a few weeks away from getting our 501c3 status!!!!!

heres mine on you tube, it dosen't really go into detail but it give you ideas, i already hatched out a clutch of corn snakes, and im about to get ready to toss in some ball python eggs, goodluck!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdjARIKkfLE

Mine holds up to 12 shoeboxes at a time.

150 qt igloo cooler, 25 feet heat cable, light diffuser, piping, water bottles and thermostat.

1. Bottom frame wrapped with heat cable

2. Bottom shelf on

3. Fill bottoms shelf with water bottles

4. Put on top frame and shelf

With the top shelf it only fits 8 clutches but if you need more room it's easy enough to pop out the top shelf and remove the water bottles for 12 clutches. The heat cable and thermostat all run out the drain hole, I don't use a fan.

Hope that helps.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

That's exactly what I had in mind. Are the water bottles in to raise the humidity? If so do they have holes in them? Where do you put the probe? How long have you used this incubator? I only had 2 clutches this year and lost both of them. I used a hovabator but I determined the ROOM I had them in would get too hot. It doesn't matter if the thermostat is set on 90 if the room gets 95!!!! I will have some really nice girls upto size this year and don't want to even think about loosing a single egg!! Sorry for all the questions I just don't want to make anymore mistakes! Thanks for your help. Chris

Are the water bottles in to raise the humidity? If so do they have holes in them?

The water bottles are just to help maintain a steady temperature. No holes -- all your humidity issues will be maintained within your egg boxes.

Where do you put the probe?

I've tried it both inside an egg box and sitting on the upper shelf -- both work fine but I had less temperature fluctuation keeping it in the egg box but either way will work.

How long have you used this incubator?

This is my second season using it.

I only had 2 clutches this year and lost both of them. I used a hovabator but I determined the ROOM I had them in would get too hot.

My snake room gets very warm as well the cooler does have better insulation against the heat but there have been times when I've noticed the thermostat reading 92* tho no spikes that adversely affected any of the eggs. It's always a learning process.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

This year and it worked great! Instead of using water bottles I used 2 41 quart tubs with holes drilled in the lids and filled them with water and placed them on my heat tape in the bottom of my stand up freezer that I turned in to an incubator. It worked great and kept the heat stable and the humiditiy up above 90% in all my egg boxes. Obivously you don't have to use 41Q you can use whatever size that works for the space your using, my goal was to cover all the heat tape with the filled tubs to eliminate temperature swings.
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1.0 Sunrise (sshhh)
1.0 orange ghost mojave
1.0 Het pied
1.0 Hypo
1.0 Spider Het Hypo
0.1 orange ghost mojave
0.1 mojave (best looking one ever! thanks Jeff Luman)
0.1 Pastel Het ghost
0.1 Hypo
0.1 mojave
0.4 Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.2 poss Het nerd Orange Hypo
0.1 poss Het albino
0.1 het pied
0.1 Bell Jungle
0.6 normal breeders
0.1 black pastel (unproven)
0.1 Tiger ball (unproven)
0.1 genetic reduced pattern
0.1 black back
0.1 mojave (best looking one ever! thanks Jeff Luman)
0.1 Pastel Het ghost
1.0 posslble salmon boa
0.1 BCI 8.5 ft
1.0 (creamcicle?) (okatee?) digging in to his genetics . . .
1.0 snow corn
1.0 anery motley
0.1 anery motley
0.1 ghost motley corn
0.1 lavendar het hypo
0.1 miami het hypo
0.1 coral snow
0.1 miami
0.1 sunglow
0.1 candy cane
0.1 love line okatee
0.1 blue tail monitor
2.2 felines aka boa food ;o
And I am not gonna count all those rats . . .

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I like that setup Tosha.. Thanks for posting...
Jbugg

Thanks -- it's a simple yet effective set up. I miss having a window to look in tho.

One additional note -- all coolers are not created equal - I had to start with measuring my egg boxes and then go in to target to find one that would fit the egg boxes.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

Hey tosha I haven't posted here in a long time. But I had to say that looks nice
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Brian n Chrissy

"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

How well does it keep temps?

I thought about doing one like this, only drilling a hole in the cooler and filling it with that doorway sealing foam stuff as added insulation.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Mine does really well -- but again I keep it in my snake room which is usually pretty warm during the hatching season -- can't honestly say how it would perform in a colder environment.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

If you know of someone who gets "Reptiles" magazine, there is a really nice article in the August '07 mag. I say its really nice, but then I'm biased....I wrote it...