Inquiries about Incubation :P

[tigristusha]

:mrgreen: She did she did! :mrgreen: She laid 23 eggs this time. 3 of them I believe she crushed as she was re-burying the clutch, one had a thin membrane and was leaking, and another i believe was also punctured by her toe :/. But that leaves me with 18 "good" eggs! Which is twice the amount that we got out of the first clutch (although she laid 15).

Im still having difficulties keeping the humidity up in the incubator so Im resorting to the sponge-in-bowl-of-water technique, but without the sponge, and with a big ball of paper towel At least until I go to work and can get an actual sponge.

She will be getting a lovely batch today, and I made her a nice mash of Veggies with a wee bit of the dry kibble i usually give (its actually got some great ingredients) and vitamin dust (the Sandfire vitamin dust VMF). She ate that in two seconds <3

Here is a pic so you can see (I have to say the pictures ive taken aren't too bad, Ive been taking them with my cell phone):

As for the eggs from the first clutch, I havnt seen any real improvement... :/

 

[midnight_962002]

I have been reading your thread. And while I only used the hovabator a few times. I am going to make a few suggestions that may help you better with your second clutch.

One, that tray doesn't hold much water. It works but, you have to check it regularly and add water regularly. You may be better off to put something similar to what you have your eggs in to add more water. I keep my humidity around 85%.

Second your medium looks extremely dry. It should be moist when you touch it. Especially in the first couple of weeks. What I like to do is make it a week before she is ready to lay and place it in the incubator. This allows the medium to get a temperature and it allows you to get the temp/humidity right. Its good that you have the containers that are see through. I use something similar. What I look for is humidity below the top of the medium. Meaning you will see condensation on the walls of the container below the medium only. If you see it above the medium then you are most likely developing some moisture on the eggs and that will lead to mold.

Finally, try not to open the incubator unless absolutely necessary. We check or eggs at 2 weeks and then at 1 month. Other than, that we don't have to open the incubator for anything.

I am not sure if your first clutch is going to make it. If it did I would worry about the overall health of the babies. I am not going to tell you that it is or it isn't. But, I am a little skeptical.

I tried the hatch-rite mentioned earlier. You are going to need to add water to that to. You would be better off finding Perilte from the store and making your own as Hatch-Rite is rather expensive comparibly. The hardest thing is to find perilite with no additives.

Good Luck

Ernie

 

[tigristusha]

Thank you for your honesty, observations and sharing your experience. I think I will have much better success with this second clutch. Im with you about the first ones, I think they are long gone, but who knows :| .

I definitely would love to try the perlite. Do you use it yourself? What is the ratio you use as far as the medium/water. And do you do it by weight?

If I get the perlite soon, would you recommened I move the eggs onto it once I set it up or just leave it for furture clutches.

 

[midnight_962002]

I don't really use a weight or ratio. I do it by feel.

I put the perilite into the container to the hight I want it, which is about 1" deep. Then I add water and mix. I keep adding water until I can squeeze a drip out when I grab a clump of it.

If your medium on the second clutch is good and moist, I wouldn't move the eggs. You want to move them as little as possible. Furthermore, I would keep a good eye on the first clutch. If you think the eggs are gone then they probably are. If the don't inflate with a higher level of humidity then they are gone. Leaving them in there can result in mold. As you know, mold is air born. Meaning it can make it onto your good eggs and ruin them too! It is best to remove and freeze and egg with mold on it right away.

In my early days of breeding I ruined my eggs because I was trying to make adjustments to everything to make sure that it was right. Once, you get the setup right it is best to forget about it. I will look in on the eggs weekly but, I only remove them at around 2 weeks and at 1 month to view them without having something in the way.

Also, don't candle them anytime after the first couple of days. The only reason I candle my eggs is for the initial transfer. As you have noticed your girl is coming into incidental contact with the eggs after laying. This can rotate your egg and we want the embryo up top. I use a small flashlight to find the embryo and place that up in the medium. That will be the last time they see bright light until they are out of the incubator.

Good Luck

Ernie

 

[JubJubLizard]

That is great news that she laid the 2nd clutch and that she is doing well. That is a good pic from your cell. The first eggs are still very dented....darn it. Were you able to find the perilite or did you stick with the vermeculite? As I said before I went with the hatchrite as a last option as they weren't selling anything in town until Spring.Now they have the perilite but with additives. You do need to add water to the hatchrite as stated above. I also tried the bowl of water but I could never get the humidity up with that and that is what lead us to the sponges. We live in the desert though so the bowl just may work for you. Once we got our temps and humidity up then we just left everything alone. We had 100% hatch for out 1st clutch which we are thrilled about as this is all brand new to us. Good luck and can't wait to hear you have babies

 

[tigristusha]

I will probably switch to perlite (less chances with mold and everything I have read seems to point to it being easier to work with. It doesnt seem too difficult to find either) in the future but for now I have the eggs in the vermiculite. They seem to be doing fine, the condensation seems just right. Fortunately, I have this to look forward to next month: http://reptileexpo.com/nyfirst.htm so I am super excited. I cant wait to see what goodies I can get for my Herps. Last time we went we picked up my Iguana, Tequila and our latest two in the beardie family, China (chee-nah) and Lilly, a german giant lemon cross I cant wait to see her get to her full size. Shes about 13months now. And she is such a peach. China is a the youngest, shes only 8 months, and her beautiful citrus colors are coming in. I have them at a friends house at the moment while I have Honey and Monty so I can give them my full attention. We rotate the dragons around. Her mother is a science teacher and likes to bring them to school, and my electricity bill isnt too high Works out really nice... :lol: