Incubator Recommendations

[Nero Egernia]

I've been using the Exo Terra Incubator for little over a year and have hatched Knob Tailed Geckos and Bearded Dragons successfully with it. It's not mine. It's a family members, where I guess I was sort of appointed to sort out all the hatching technicalities. It wasn't a perfect incubator, with the temperature accuracy leaving something to be desired, but I was able to work around it. Just recently I've noticed it's been malfunctioning where the incubator keeps turning itself on and off where it reached the point of never turning on again unless if you hold the switch in place where it will turn on, go for maybe an hour, and then turn off again.

I also have another incubator that I use for hatching birds. I've had this one for a couple of years now and it's far superior in every way, the temperatures are accurate, fan forced, it's larger, and never before (touch wood) has it malfunctioned whatsoever. I've hatched many clutches of different species of bird with it. I've only spoken to a pet shop person about this, but they say that bird egg incubators are absolutely no good at hatching reptile eggs as it dries them out. But if the eggs were sealed in a container they should be fine - wouldn't they?

Even if bird egg incubators can be used, my incubator is usually in use for birds and I can't put both reptile and bird eggs in together because they require different temperatures and hatch at different times. Any recommendations for incubators or is it possible to use bird egg incubators after all?

 

[Buggster]

i've heard that you can modify a bird incubator to suit reptiles- not sure of how, but i'm sure there are manuals out there somewhere.
The biggest thing would be to make sure the incubator does not turn the eggs over- bird eggs need to be turned, and most bird-specific incubators will automatically turn them over for you. Of course, turning a reptile egg would be a very bad idea...
best of luck hatching out some new cuties

 

[Nero Egernia]

i've heard that you can modify a bird incubator to suit reptiles- not sure of how, but i'm sure there are manuals out there somewhere.
The biggest thing would be to make sure the incubator does not turn the eggs over- bird eggs need to be turned, and most bird-specific incubators will automatically turn them over for you. Of course, turning a reptile egg would be a very bad idea...
best of luck hatching out some new cuties

Thanks for the suggestion. Not all bird incubators are automatic turners, so it shouldn't be hard to find some that don't turn at all. I've also toyed with the idea of making my own incubator, but if I can find a suitable bird incubator at a decent price I might not bother.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Hey Oshkii. The incubator itself isnt used to maintain humidity. The function of the incubator is simply to maintain an accurate and appropriate temperature. Moisture or humidity is controlled within the container you choose to use and the medium within. (Hence over water becomming a popular medium)
In short you can use ANY type of incubator as a box to maintain the temperature but use a sealed/semi sealed container with a moist medium in order to maintain humidity. (The only thing to be aware of is as you mention not turning the eggs. Some of the commercial bird egg incubators come with auto turning but this can on some be turned off).

 

[Nero Egernia]

Yeah, I only worried about the humidity within the container for the reptile eggs. When incubating birds eggs the humidity is modified a little differently, usually by controlling air flow through the vents and the surface area of a body of water present in the incubator. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[reen08]

Where can I buy a decent reptile incubator from?