Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have five females and one male. Only two of the females will be to the breeding size of 1000 gm this yr. I have been looking at incubators but do not know which one would be the best suit my needs. I have seen the hobavator and the sportsman 1550. The hobavator goes around forty dollars were as the sportsman goes over four hundred and fifty. Please reply so I can see what is mostly used and what you think of them both the good and the bad.
Thank You

Hobavators work pretty well. I would strongly recommend
however that you get a backup thermostat and place the probe
in with the eggs. I always double protect all my racks and cages. You don't want to know how many thermostats I've got
on my incubators!

The best case (although a little more expensive) is to get
a proportional thermostat and make sure that is the device
that is gating the heating element. That will keep your
temps VERY constant. The generic hobavator thermostat will
probably keep the temp to within /- 2 degrees. This may
sound like a lot, but it isn't too bad. Put in a min/max
thermometer to monitor. If the 'high' is 91 and the 'low'
is 87, then the 'average' is ~89 degrees, which is just
fine. Again, if you use the proportional thermostat instead,
it should keep a much tighter range.

I have most of my eggs in a larger incubator, but I still do
keep a couple clutches in the hobavators just to spread them
around a little. I don't like to have all my eggs in one
basket (er, I mean incubator!).

Good luck,
ChrisS - SanJose

PS: 1000g is really on the small size for breeding. It is
possible, but 1500g is much better. The 30 females that I
bred this last season averaged over 2100g!

Thank you for your input I think I will buy the 1602n to start out with and keep it for when I get more eggs. Do you know where I could get the proportional thermostat that you wrote about, and how would I hook them up together?