Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is your preferred method when using a homemade incubator?

We bought the things to make one that uses a heat mat, but I've read that people also use the water/w a fishtank heater as well. We have a fish tank heater and now we have a thermostat and a heat pad as well. We could go either way.

This is the first time breeding and unfortunately it came as an accident. We found our corns mating the other day and we want to be prepared in case one is a female(I've read males will mate...) and lays viable eggs.

I've been doing research for three days now. Any advice?! How do I keep the humidity up? Should I leave the lid off of the egg container while it's in the incubator? If not, how do I keep track of the temp and humidity *inside* the container?

I'm kind of nervous as I want to take care of everyone the best way possible.

Thanks so much.

I incubate my eggs pretty simplistically. The eggs are placed inside plastic shoe boxes with a lid. A couple of small holes in the lid to allow some air exchange. The incubation media keeps the humididty up. I use either sphagnum moss or vermiculite that I wet real well and wring out until it is just damp with no visible water drops coming off any longer when squeezed. I line the boxes with this, place the eggs ontop of and partially in the media, and cover with damp (once again,not wet) paper towels placed LOOSELY over the eggs. As long as you can find a spot that stays in the mid to upper 70s to low to mid 80s, you should be fine. I keep my eggs in my herp room as it stays fairly warm due to heat sources. In the past I just kept them in my shed that was cooled with an AC unit to approximately 80 degrees. It got a bit cooler and warmer, but the range was in the good zone. Dont freak if you do not keep a constant temp!! As long as not too cool or hot, they will be fine. I have heard of folks placing them on top of their refrigerators where there was a WARM spot. You may be able to just put them inside a closet where the AC doesnt cool during the warmer months.

I just converted a coleman cooler into an incubator. I used heat cable, but heat tape would work just as well. I set this up on a thermostat to keep the temps in the desired range (84-85F is what i used). I put the eggs in vermiculate which is mixed 1:1 with water by weight.

Inside the incubator I used a wide tray with water to keep the incubator humid. The eggs and incubation medium were in a deli dish with lid, with a few holes punched in to allow air flow. I set up a shelf about middle of the cooler which I placed the deli dish on.
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PHLdyPayne

I have 23 turtles that live outdoors when the weather gets nice. Consequently, I have aquarium heaters galore. Some of them have temperature gauges - one brand in particular has a setting of 81 degrees, which is what I like. I always have a thermometer in the water, so I can verify the temperature.

I've used beverage coolers, cement mixing trays and plastic storage boxes - all with equal success. I put about 4 inches of water in the incubation box and then put some bricks in it. The 4 inches of water insures that when heated, the box will maintain a stable temperature. I heat the water with the aquarium heater for several days, keeping an eye on the water temperature, before adding any containers with eggs.

I set the eggs up (usually in Tupperware) in lidded containers on top of the bricks. These containers will float in the water, so to avoid that, the water should only cover 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of the bottom of the containers holding the eggs. I use lids on both the egg containers as well as the incubation box. Lids are necessary on the egg containers, otherwise you'll get way too much humidity and potentially drown the eggs.

In the setup I can put additional containers with eggs on top of the existing containers, because the air is heated as well. I tend to check eggs about once a week. There is no harm done in removing each egg container, looking it over, and returning it to the incubation box. In the wild it is quite likely that eggs are subjected to temperature fluctuations.

An important thing to remember when artificially incubating eggs is to place the incubation box where the outside temperature will stay at 80 degrees or below. Often heatwaves seem to be the cause of babies with deformities (spinal kinks). So I like to incubate eggs in a garage or basement.

Corn Snake eggs do not need to be incubated if you have summertime daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s. The idea with artificial incubation is to speed up the hatching process.

Tim

Plastic storage box that I used to incubate eggs last year (shown with lid removed):

Third Eye