incubating yay or nay

[ajler]

why do people incubate there rep eggs is it more reliable or what. It seems a lot of work and worry,condensation,mouldand so on would it not be better to let the reps do it themselves or are they lousey parents :

[mystic_herps]

Artificial incubation is prefered.
If the female has a rather large clutch which she can not coil around she will push several eggs to the side and only coil around what she can cover.The eggs that have been discarded will die.Also letting females incubate their own eggs takes alot out of them,they will lose alot of condition due to lack of food and excercise as they will give the eggs first priority over anything else.Condensation.mould and other associated problems are due to wrong incubation techniques.

[jake0476]

It also helps the female get to her ol self again and you get a better survival rate if you incubate.. i incubate but thats a personal preference... i do know of people that dont incubate and it does take a long time for the female pythons to get back to there natural state again....

[insectovor]

Artificial incubation is good.
The reason is that your succes rate will probably be a lot higher when artificially incubated.
In case of lizards it is very hard to get the right conditions in a tub of sand as for snakes, the general humidity and temperature are hard to maintain, I,m not saying that it is impossible,I'm just saying hard to do. As for the mould, I've never ever had mould in any of my incubations.
Reptiles are rather lousy parents yep!!! The other good thing to do is "DON'T stuff around during the incubation process"", this is one of the main reasons a lot of people fail.

[mystic_herps]

I wouldn't say all herps are lousy parents,some are just better than others.

For example lizards.
Some species will bury their clutch and leave them to fend for themselves,while other species will defend the laying area quite vigorously.But there is still a maternal instinct from both species.Although the 1st case does not defend the area it had still checked all substrate in the area to find the best place to lay in regards to safety,temperature,humidity etc.

[Bruce]

Do most of you guys make your own incubators, or is it more beneficial to purchase a proper reptile incubator from a reptile shop?
I have a few pairs of beardies showing potential signs of breeding and I just want to be prepared.
Looking forward to loads of helpful ideas!!!

[insectovor]

I guess all parents do their best to ensure that their genes come into the world. But for most reptiles there is not much aftercare and offspring is left to fend for them selves exept crocodiles I guess.

[africancichlidau]

Do most of you guys make your own incubators, or is it more beneficial to purchase a proper reptile incubator from a reptile shop?

There is an excellent description of a home made incubator on the Herp Shop site and if this is too much like hard work it is pretty easy to build one out of an old refrigerator or the like

[NoOne]

Incubation is a straight foward process in most cases, provided you have nice fertile eggs it's very easy.
It comes across as a hard thing to do and most first timers seem very worried about trying it, hence why alot of people think it's better to leave eggs with female.
Unless you live in an area of high humidity it's alot harder to provide the right conditions for a female python to incubate eggs, i personally see no reason to allow the female to do the job.
Stuff like mould come from things like unclean incubation containers etc.
Condensation is perfectly normal and is not the result of bad techniques.

Store bought incubators are generally of poor quality (unless you pay big bucks) and it's better to build your own and theres many different ways.

I must say that i have never tried ready made incubators but the ones i've looked at weren't worth 2 cents IMO.

[snakehunter]

what about with lizards that are naturally occurring in your area, leave the eggs in the ground?

[NoOne]

The main reason snakes and lizards lay so many eggs is because of the poor survival rates of both eggs and hatchlings. Lizards in particular, thats way they multiple clutch.
Even if the lizards are native to the area you would be lucky to get a good hatch rate.

[snakehunter]

a main reason the eggs dont make it in the wild is predation, foxes, monitors, large dragons etc dig up freshly laid eggs
I do agree that large clutches are laid to ensure some survive, but surely the eggs are naturally programed to hatch and should

[mystic_herps]

I meant excessive condensation to the extend of too much moisture.It is common sense that condensation will occur considering you have a container full of substrate to hold humidity and this is sealed with an airtight lid.But by bad techniques I mean not lifting the lid and fanning the eggs reguarly...

[ajler]

Thanks for those replies chaps. Reps dont sound much differant to chooks I hope to be breeding my own in a year or two ( reps that is ) and any info I can pick up is appretiated so stay tuned for more dumb questions. :roll:

[Bruce]

Thanks for your comments guys!
will see how I go, and hope for the best!