some questions regarding incubation

Hello,
I have had several clutches of Bearded Dragon eggs. The first clutch was laid in the substrate, which was wheat bran at the time, and the eggs were too dehydrated to be incubated. I had several more clutches that were highly successful, with approximately only one non-hatch per clutch, and all the babies did wonderfully.
The last two clutches were my problem clutches. The one clutch had no hatches, even though I could easily see perfectly formed beardies in each egg, some would seem to partially hatch then die, and some seemed to just "deflate" and die.
The very last clutch I had was quite strange...........most of the eggs collapsed early on, then five eggs remained viable.......out of those five eggs, 3 did nothing, one hatchling actually had it's entire tail out of the egg then died, and the last hatchling lived. The last hatchling, that is totally normal is appearance is well over a month old. Although it is quite robust and physically healthy, it is crazy! It continues to run whenever we approach it, bites whenever possible, and is truly not social at all (it does not act one bit like other beardies). I am not exactly sure what happened to my next to last clutch, but my last clutch experienced temperature swings, and the temp often briefly went into the low 90s. I also believe I had too much humidity in the last two clutches, but am not sure. You will be happy to know I have moved my incubator to eliminate any temp fluctuations, and I have gotten a hydrometer to measure humidity in the incubator. We are middle aged/settled people, with no loud noises nor children bothering anything (so this could not be the reason for the crazy baby).
My questions are:
* What should the humidity read inside the plastic tubs inside the incubator be?
* Where is the best place in there to put the hydrometer?
* What do you think about the "crazy" baby beardie?
Thank you so much!
Ocean

Wow, had some trouble haven't you? What are you using for the incubator and thermostat that would cause the temps to fluctuate? This is my first season, so I do lack experience breeding, but I have heard 80-90% is best for humidity. Do you have a large pan of water near the heat source? That tends to help raise the humidity. Leave the hydrometer inside an empty eggbox that is set up *exactly* like the other eggboxes. As for the crazy beardie, I have no clue, although it sounds similar to what leopard gecko breeders call a "hot female" (Leos are temp determined gender, females are generally the lower temps, but when you raise the temps too high to get males, you sometimes get "hot females" or overly aggresive non-breeding females... I have no idea about how a bearded dragon would end up like that, but maybe your temps fluctuating had something to do with it.)...
Just a thought...
-Drew

I have a Hovabator, the type with the fan to circulate the heat, thus keeping temps consistent throughout the incubator. I truly believe my temps fluctuated because the room temp fluctuated so much during that time period. (I have central heat and central air, but during that time period we went from some days in the upper 80s to nights with frost). I have now changed the room the incubator is in, and have had no temps fluctuate at all.
As far as the hot theory.....I and a few of my fellow herpers have thought possibly the same as you!
Thanks,
Oceah

Yup, a hovabator would do that... I am using an old cooler as my incubator, heated by flexwatt attached to a herpstat digital proportional thermometer. Digital proportional is the best way to go as it (unlike the "wafer thermostat" in a hovabator) constantly adjusts the heat so that the incubator remains a *very* constant temperature (within a tenth of a degree of what I want, 83.5* F)... If you have just $100 bucks you could afford a digital proportional thermostat, around $10-$25 for the flexwatt, and you could probably find a cooler somewhere to use, then you could create a *very* constant, reliable, and cheap incubator. Many people use hovabators, I am unsure, however, of their accuracy and reliability...
Here are some pics of the inside of my incubator, note the probe attatched to the top of the first box:



-Drew

Looks like a nice setup you have there. TY for the pic. Where did you get your supplies you have there?
I was told by many people that the hovabators are very nice and reliable. I could have gotten my hovabator on sale I guess, but the full price was around $75 with shipping, and I thought I was getting a reliable and useful incubator.

Don't get me wrong, hovabators work fine for some people, but, as you described, if you have a room that fluctuates in temperature, or don't want to guesstimate with the thermostat (For some snakes, it is okay for the temps to be off by a few degrees, but BDs require a bit more accuracy), then I would go with a digital proportional thermostat. I got my supplies from http://www.mgreptiles.com/index.html . While it's certainly not the only place to get these supplies, it is among the only ones where you can get both flexwatt (the heatsource) and the digital proportional thermostat. Remember that *assembled* digital incubators can cost around $600-$800 (see http://www.aveyinc.com/reptile_pages.htm) and you're getting the same quality, just assembled at home, for around $125 (a bit more if you don't already have a cooler or a broken fridge to use for the actual "incubator")
Good Luck!
-Drew

I'll address some of your original questions. As for humidity I have never measured it with any kind of device. I keep my eggs in a glad sandwich container. I poke holes in the side above the medium (perlite) and holes in the top, as well. I check on the eggs frequently (every couple days) and make sure that there is no too much condensation on the lid. If there is I take the lid off and shake the water droplets off. The lid should have condensation on it but not to the point of raining on the eggs. That can actually cause the babies to suffocate or drown. I keep water tubs over the heat tape in my incubator that get filled weekly and the perlite is kept moist in the containers. I do have to add water occasionally to get humidity levels up in the container. In a hovobator I think you add water to the bottom, right? I built my own because I needed more room.

Once the eggs pip I immediately remove them from the egg container and put them in another glad tub with a fairly wet paper towel in the bottom. I also tear the opening in the egg a little to make it easier to get out. You mentioned that some would get their head out and then die. If the egg dries out at all after pipping it can shrink and actually suffocate the baby. While not very common babies can swallow whatever medium you are using (perlite, vermiculite, etc) accidently and die that way too. Those are the two main reasons I remove the baby fron the egg tub. The other is if the baby gets out and moves around the tub it can disturb other eggs. If they get rolled over that can cause the babies to die in the egg.

You mentioned temperature spikes. Temps over 90 can kill babies in the egg. I had to move my incubator out of my lizard room and into my bedroom (my wife loves that) I was getting spikes in the 90's and suffered some losses that way. It is usually okay for short periods but over a couple days it can take it's toll.

As for you deflating eggs lack of humidity can cause it or you also mentioned that you had 4 or 5 clutches. I have a female that lays large clutches of 35 or more. By her 5th clutch only 4 eggs out of 32 were viable. So if it is the same female laying all those clutches it's possible that she isn't getting enough calcium to strengthen the egg shells or that the sperm she is retaining just isn't potent enough to fertilize the eggs any more. I only breed the male to the female once between the first and second clutch. Then they are done for the season. I get whatever I get and that way the females aren't getting over-bred.

Finally, for you crazy beardie. This is just a thought. People suffer from different forms of mental illness. Maybe your dragon is like my ex-wife and is just plain crazy. Hope this helps.

Mike

Thanks Mike and all for the advice! I did read it all before, but at work, where I could not reply (LOL).
Ocean

Hello,

Sounds like rujonesin has some good advice. I'm taking notes as well, lol.

I purchased a MEAN dragon before. It was my second dragon when I had first gotten into them so my knowledge of them was not very high. It actually came from Dachiu for $140. It was a very pretty female and was nice for the first week but after that it got "EVIL". I'm not even kidding.... this thing looked like a wet, cornered cat! I tried holding it daily and sometimes a couple times a day to make it like me but that *^#(#@ thing would still run around the cage like a chicken with it's head chopped off, puffing up at me and jumping towards me to bite! I eventually got so frustrated that I considered putting it out of my mysery, lol.

I kept it for at least 6 months before finally selling it to someone with more patients at a much lower price then I paid. I contacted Dachiu with questions through email about her but never got a reply back. I was thinking that maybe since they are such large breeders that the babies don't get use to human contact often or maybe females are more aggressive or that the parents were aggressive and that trait was transfered to the offspring. Who knows....... It was probably retarted / mentally challenged. Some Lizard Guy makes a good point though about the HOT FEMALE thing. I didn't know that.

Good luck with your breeding and temps! Just thought I'd tell ya that your not alone on the mean dragon thing.

Side Note: I would still by from Dachiu. They do have great customer service "If you call" and they breed really pretty dragons.

Jerit