Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

Not been about for a while now but the kids are doing well.
Dave and Lewy are doing great who are the 2 guys, Dave is a collaris and lew is a bicintores,

They have never fought so am going to keep them all together until they do. As i dont want to take lew back just because he was sold to me as a female.

The two newist ones are stimpy and grumpy, Both about 8 months old and are both collaris's.

Well anyway after trying to hibernate them for only a week back in dec they didn;t really fancy it and as they were pretty small i decided to give this year a miss and try again next year when they are a bit bigger.

however Grumpy has started getting really fat, I have kept their food the same as always yet she is deff much bigger than her sister and looks quite lumpy in her belly.
She doesn't have any colouring to indicate she may have eggs but there is deffinatly something going on.
She is much different now in that she stays up in the evening for longer and has become very inquisitive and much less skitty and scared compared to what she used to be.

what do you think based on what i have said, possibly carrying eggs ?? or just got a big locust in her fat little belly ??

i will steal my dads new digi camera and get some pics up.

going back to the point i want to make.
How do you guys incubate your eggs ?? do you have proper incubators or do you use home made ones.

any details on how to make one and what equip and conditions i need to replicate would be fantastic help.

cheers

Funky

I responded to this very same question.

John

I see my subject line was not appropriately labled LOL
incubation and substrate

I am ok with all the substrate etc that would be needed.
But i am thinking of making one yet wouldn;t want to harm the chances of the eggs hatching but saving a few quid.

What i was thinking was a polystyrene box with vents.
a heatmat at the bottom on a thermostat
and the tubs the crickets arrive in with vermiculite in for the actual eggs.
I would have the tubs an inch or so above the heatmat supported on some horizontal dowels running through the box.
and to keep the humidity up i would add a bowl of water close to the heatmat on the dowels.

My main concern is will i be able to reach the required humidity but at the same time get enough fresh air passing over the eggs ????

what are your thoughts

You can use a small tank, like a 10 gallon aq, or even a cooler. Put enough water in the bottom to cover a submerisible heater (if you have one). This will enable you to heat the water, and air temp. You will need to calibrate the air temp by increasing/decreasing the temp of the water. The eggs are then incubated in a small deli cup which sits on top of a brick, or something else to keep it above the water. Just try to keep the eggs at a nice temp 75-85. Unless you have an adjustable heat pad, you may not be able to get those temps...

I have hatched eggs with no incubator too. I had them in a container with moistened vermiculate, and kept them on the hood of my fish tank. I found the warm spot above the light, and found I could get temps around 82. It did cool to about 72 at night, but the eggs hatched the same...just took longer. These were banded gecko eggs though.

You may be able to find a Hova-bator on E-bay for a small amount. When I thought of making one, the cost of the submersible heater, cooler, were close enough to the cost of the incubator, that I changed my mind. Later, my wife found a Hova-bator at a garage sale for $1.00.

John