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Incubator & substrate

R

Reptiles_Iceland

New member
Hi there!

I need help on this topic!

What is the best incubator?
What is the best substrate for eggs?

I really want the Zoo Med incubator and some good incubation substrate!
Is the Zoo Med incubator bad or good?

The problem is I live in Iceland and NO pet store sells this kind of stuff.

Anyone willing to help me? :shrugs:
 
We use a simple chicken egg incubator from our local farm supply store - it works great and is very inexpensive. We have not used the ZooMed brand so we cannot give you any reviews on that one. For substrate we use vermiculite (make sure to get the variety that does not have any fertilizers or additives to it such as MiracleGro) and/or we have also used pearlite or the reptile version Hatchrite. We place the eggs in individual ziplock type containers with a few small holes in the lid for ventilation.
 
I also use vermiculite. Some folks swear by pearlite, but I was having humidity problems with it when I used it. My incubator is the cheap, $40-50 chicken egg incubator from Tractor Supply Co. Love it!
 
I incubated at room temp without an incubator and never had any problems, my medium was peat moss, always worked.
 
Weda, what is room temp? How do the eggs handle nightly temp drops? I'm thinking about just puttin my eggs on the top shelf this year, it usually stays 82-84 but drops to 78 at night. How long do your eggs take to hatch?
 
DragonsDenSerpents said:
I also use vermiculite. Some folks swear by pearlite, but I was having humidity problems with it when I used it. My incubator is the cheap, $40-50 chicken egg incubator from Tractor Supply Co. Love it!
Click to expand...


The cheapest chicken egg incubator cost $350 ! This is Iceland and there is not much range of this product here :(

I would love if it would cost $60-100
 
I made my own incubators. Basically strong cardboard boxes, insulated with stuff like polystyrene sheets or cork tiles, heated from underneath with a heat mat+thermostat. I use plastic tubs as egg containers, with damp vermiculite as the substrate. I tape the setup to a wooden bread board so I can move it if necessary. The thermostat probe goes inside the egg container.
 
bitsy said:
I made my own incubators. Basically strong cardboard boxes, insulated with stuff like polystyrene sheets or cork tiles, heated from underneath with a heat mat+thermostat. I use plastic tubs as egg containers, with damp vermiculite as the substrate. I tape the setup to a wooden bread board so I can move it if necessary. The thermostat probe goes inside the egg container.
Click to expand...

I like this very much. Thanks for sharing Bitsy!
 
AliCat37 said:
Weda, what is room temp? How do the eggs handle nightly temp drops? I'm thinking about just puttin my eggs on the top shelf this year, it usually stays 82-84 but drops to 78 at night. How long do your eggs take to hatch?
Click to expand...

That's about the same temps as mine, it would occasionally drop lower in the seventies. It's been a while and I honestly couldn't tell you exactly how long it took to hatch. One clutch did take a while longer than normal but after I added more water they hatched a week or so after. I think they were too dry.
 
Sphagnum moss worked great for me, I believe I read that it has some anti fungal properties, for me a slug didn't get moldy. I also used a homemade incubator since it was an accidental clutch.
 
Here's an old thread which may be helpful.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49789

In 2011 I incubated some clutches @ 76 degrees F (24.4444 Celsius)
They took 11 months to hatch, all the yolk was used up, they were bigger than other babies, and with better/more developed color.

In 2012 the temperature fluctuated between 78 and 86 F; incubation took 8-10 weeks.

Here's old threads about incubation & related stuff:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50108
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31040
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35774
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94225
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118225&page=2
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83937
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90918
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65141
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116184
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92378

Lots of ideas to give you lots of options.

Hope this helps.
dp
 
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