Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi!
I just bought a hovabator for what I hope will be my first clutch of eggs!!

Only - I don't know how to use it!! Help!!!

Any suggestions? The only thing I've heard is not to use the fan...

Thank you!
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...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.2 normals
0.1 pie ball
2.0 hetpied
0.1 Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
1 pet rat and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

go to walmart and get an digital thermometer $10 put the probe close to the middle of the incubator turn the dial until you find a CONSISTENT temperature gradient of 88-91 remember if the room fluxuates in temperature so will the incubator so constant fine tuning will be needed,also the the dial is hyper sensitive. a movement of 1mm can be 1-2 degrees so be very careful try to put it in the most temperature consistent part of you house run the incubator for 24 hours to get desired temperature range consistent,remember winter is coming and it will get cold in ur house so you will have to compensate for it with the dial (minimal turning)also despite what people say hova-bators and little giant incubators keep horrible moisture levels so i placed my eggs on about a 1/2 inch thick sheets of newspaper and sprayed the newspaper and the eggs every 2-3 days with WARM water it will evaporate faster off the eggs,also make sure you spray in between the sheets of paper to keep the moisture level up i hatched 6 for 6 my very first clutch on october 15-19

Watch out ofr those cheapo digital thermometers. I have a bunch of them, and some are 3 degrees off. Most are at least a degree off. That might make a big difference for an incubator.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

I used one years ago with mixed results. Using it as is I found the eggs dried out too quickly. What I did to solve this was make a spacer to raise the lid on the incubator then mount the heat element on the bottom instead of the top, this way the heat travels through the substrate instead of being concentrated on the exposed egg surface. The eggs were kept in clear Phillips shoe boxes with damp vermiculite. I would suggest this over newspapers, with vermiculite you rarely if ever have to add additional water through the incubation period. I prefer to keep the temps no higher than 90, I shoot for 89. Being a little low may mean a few extra days of incubation but being a little high means dead eggs. From what I know 91 is pushing the max and with the Hovabators simple wafers thermostat it wouldn't take much to raise a degree or two potentially killing all the eggs. I would rather wait a few extra days then risk losing the clutch.

George Knaack
GLK HERP
www.reptilenews.com

...with 6 clutches. I prefer the fan model, BUT...

...in either model, I placed the clutch partially buried in moistened vermiculite (1:1 vermic/water by weight) inside a Phillips Shoe Box, with two 1/8" holes at each end, with the lid on the shoebox. Then I always keep water in the plastic liner, with paper towels "wicking" out to greatly increase the evaporative surface area. And, a 4" deli cup with water, again with paper towels wicking over the lip of the deli cup.

...there were daily minor adjustments of the temp controller, with temp flucuations of /- 2 degrees or so, with clutches hatching in about 55-56 days.

...I also use a digital thermometer AND a mercury thermometer in every case to check against each other.

Hope this helps!

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City