incubator temp please help eggs due soon

welshbeardeddragon · Mar 27, 2017

my citrus female is due to lay eggs in two weeks and im having some problems with my incubator its a tub in a tub incubator with a fish tank heater and insulation around it is ranging from 80f at night and goes up too 86f in day would that range in temperature from night and day be fine ? its the only incubator i have atm and cant get any help would be much appreciated

Rankins · Mar 27, 2017

The 80°F range is a bit low, but it should be fine, I use to shoot for 84°F. You might want to have an extra aquarium heater ready. They frequently burn up... It's not the best way to incubate eggs but if it's all you got its better than nothing (not much better though).

Rankins · Mar 27, 2017

Here's one of my incubators, I have 4 of them.
[ximg]85426 273984401[/ximg]
Here is something that would work better than an aquarium heater. It's actually one of my roach bins, I put two bins together and put insulation between them, it's heated with a 50 watt ceramic heater. It's controlled by a thermostat and it's on a dimmer switch as a safety measure. If you make one you don't need vents in the lid. Please don't make something like this unless your very careful. If not done properly you could burn your house down.
[ximg]85426 9148220317[/ximg]
[ximg]85426 7300542081[/ximg]

welshbeardeddragon · Mar 27, 2017

thanks for great post rankins

never thought a ceramic heater would work i have some spare thermostats around this will be my first ever bearded dragon eggs will be buying a reliable reptile incubator for next lot of eggs

Rankins · Mar 27, 2017

I would make an incubator. They work better than the cheap commercial ones. If you decide to do that let me know and I'll help as much as possible. I don't know how many I have built because it's a lot. I made at least 8 in the last 6 months. I make them for free for people as long as they buy the supplies.

AHBD · Mar 27, 2017

Home made incubators like Rankin's are very reliable + much better than the commercial ones. I used an old full size refrigerator with a 25 watt light bulb for years. Fortunately, even your little incubator with the aquarium heater can even work reasonably well and the eggs are pretty forgiving when temps. fall a bit low, it's the high [ above 88 ] that can kill them. A bit of temp. fluctuation that you described shouldn't hurt them.

welshbeardeddragon · Mar 28, 2017

thanks guys will get a ceramic heat emitter and try and replicate rankins incubator

Rankins · Mar 28, 2017

When I first started breeding reptiles I used an aquarium heater. It burned out 3 times and my first clutch failed miserably, my second only one hatched. Then I made an incubator like AHBD out of an old fridge. After that I never had a clutch fail, so have been using the same design for the last 30 years.

Welshbeardeddragon, my roach bin design only fluctuates by 3 degrees. But it's only because the cheap $17 thermostat takes 3°F to turn of and on. You don't have to use water at all with the design and make sure to use a dimmer switch. A 25 watt ceramic heater wasn't enough to heat the bin. But I figure my 50 watt heater is working at about 35 watts with the dimmer switch. Please do be careful building it, plastic and heat don't get along well if temps get too high.

Rankins · Mar 28, 2017

Here's another one of mine I made out of a wine cooler.[ximg]85426 1512256991[/ximg]

incubator temp please help eggs due soon

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