Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am interested in knowing what the best incubator is to buy for beginner breeders... It is the first year we are breeding our ball pythons and I really am overwhelmed by all the information available on incubators. I think that building our own is a bit risky and would really like to buy one in the next month so that it can be ready for my snakes. Does any one have any advice on what a good incubator would be for me.

I use a nature's spirit incubator. It's perfect for smaller breeders and works great.
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www.cafepress.com/jbartolettherps

Hi,

If you are able to make your own....Email me direct if you want to know how to build one. It will cost you about 350.00 to build your own which would include a great Thermostat heat tape fan and wine fridge. If you want to just buy one go to natures spirit and get one from them. I have only had one person tell me they did not like it, but I have had tons of people tell me they love it. I build my own and they are so far doing an incredible job with my eggs. That 350.00 also assumes you can find a used or broken wine fridge for 100.00 or less. You have to search craigslist for one. There are usually plenty out there. If you decide to build I can tell you what dimensions to look for and brands of wine fridge.

Regards,
Bill Rubin
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab

I agree with thunderpaws, I got on craigslist and picked up a mini fridge for free and gutted everything out of it and used heattape and a spyder robotics thermostat everything cost me 150 and i hatched with it no problem this year. Ran a constant 88.8 within .2 degrees.

Good luck!
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1.3.2 normals, 1.3.1 pastels, 0.1 mojave, 0.1 pinstripe, 0.1 albino, 1.0 yellow belly, 1.1 het pied, 1.0 amelanistic corn, 0.1 normal corn, 2.1 miniture dachshunds, 0.1 beautiful fiance
*snakes are like oreos, no one can just have one!*

Yes,

That is identical to what temps I run mine at...Actually I run them at 89.3 and it ranges a .2 degrees difference 24/7. I actually spent some extra cash and bought the Herpstat ND. This way I can see the percentage of power being drawn. The reason that is important to me is that when I run a fan with it I can over heat the incubator. So I put a dimmer switch to the fan and then run the fan high enough that the Herpstat ND is showing around 30 to 40 percent output. I hope that makes sense. Before I dimmed the fan down I was getting some overheats with test runs.

Regards,
Bill Rubin
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab

Hello,

I really like the Pro MR-148 Incubator. It's fairly inexpensive and seems to hold temps pretty well. They aren't as big as I would like. I have two clutches per incubator...I know others put 3 clutches in the incubator. They seem to hold temps and humidity well. My first set of eggs this year should be hatching in the next 10 or so days.

W. Smith

In my Wine Fridge Incubators the way they are set up now I can put in 6 to 7 six quart tubs very comfy. If I wanted to cram it i could do 14.

Regards,
Bill Rubin
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab

if you are only going to have 1 or 2 cluch at a time try the new zoomed incubator. its like the little giant but 100times better. and cheap for what it is you can find them for $150 or less

Thank you all for your posts. I am looking in to the Natures Spirit incubator for this year, but perhaps in the future as I have more females ready to breed I will consider making my own. I appreciate all of your help and insight as it was very helpful to me in making my decision.

some shots of my homemade, 2 computer fans with a switch to turn each one on separatly, light so i can see and heat tape running the back side of it.

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1.3.2 normals, 1.3.1 pastels, 0.1 mojave, 0.1 pinstripe, 0.1 albino, 1.0 yellow belly, 1.1 het pied, 1.0 amelanistic corn, 0.1 normal corn, 2.1 miniture dachshunds, 0.1 beautiful fiance
*snakes are like oreos, no one can just have one!*

Nice job. That looks really well thought out.

Bill Rubin
-----
2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab

thanks, im acctually starting to make one out of the large double door coolers that grociery stores use for icecream and such. Much bigger scale so that might be interesting, but the little one is no longer going to be big enough for how many clutches i have on my hopfull list for this up coming season.
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1.3.2 normals, 1.3.1 pastels, 0.1 mojave, 0.1 pinstripe, 0.1 albino, 1.0 yellow belly, 1.1 het pied, 1.0 amelanistic corn, 0.1 normal corn, 2.1 miniture dachshunds, 0.1 beautiful fiance
*snakes are like oreos, no one can just have one!*

I have three wine fridge incubators ready for use. I am using two of them right now and can go to about 14 clutches between two of them. I think once I ever hit 10 clutches I would start using the third one for the next 5 clutches. I think that would work out fine for my size business. A few of the bigger breeders use these size incubators because of the chance of ever having a failure with just one and one incubating source. Like that old expression.....Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Regards,
Bill Rubin
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.0 Honeybee
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids (9) and (16)
0.1 Spouse (22 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab