Is this right?

I was looking at the, way overpriced IMO, Juragon incubator and noticed this in the description.

New JURAGON KR20 Replicates daily temperature fluctuations that occur when the sun is at it's warmest during the day as well as the lower evening and night temperatures.

Wouldn't constantly changing the temps cause stress on the developing eggs and potentially cause you to lose the clutch?
I always thought you had to maintain a steady temp.

I thought that too. I was under the impression that many reptile species lay their eggs in burrows, or mounds, etc to help keep the temperatures constant. I guess it depends on how much they vary the temps.... I would be interested in seeing if they present any research on this or if it's just a theory.

Originally Posted by SPJ

I was looking at the, way overpriced IMO, Juragon incubator and noticed this in the description.

Wouldn't constantly changing the temps cause stress on the developing eggs and potentially cause you to lose the clutch?
I always thought you had to maintain a steady temp.

Constantly changing the temperatures during incubation has always been considered a big No-No. It would be interesting if they could produce some literature to back up their claims. Maybe they base their suggestions in some recent findings that we are all unaware of.

Regards

I'm not defending this product, my opinions of it are known by most here.
However, speaking strictly of colubrids, as they are all I have experimented with concerning this, I have found that I get more robust and hearty offspring when using a fluctuating incubation temperature.
I did a layman's study over the course of three seasons a few years ago just to explore the limits of incubation temperatures with colubrids and to determine what method yielded the most hearty offspring.
Without going into too much detail I found that allowing the temperature to fluctuate within a small range the incubation period was extended, and the hatchlings were born larger with much less yolk to be absorbed. Now I allow the temperature for colubrid eggs to vary from 82 or so during the day down to 75-77 at night.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

I'm not defending this product, my opinions of it are known by most here.
However, speaking strictly of colubrids, as they are all I have experimented with concerning this, I have found that I get more robust and hearty offspring when using a fluctuating incubation temperature.
I did a layman's study over the course of three seasons a few years ago just to explore the limits of incubation temperatures with colubrids and to determine what method yielded the most hearty offspring.
Without going into too much detail I found that allowing the temperature to fluctuate within a small range the incubation period was extended, and the hatchlings were born larger with much less yolk to be absorbed. Now I allow the temperature for colubrid eggs to vary from 82 or so during the day down to 75-77 at night.

That sounds like the range they specify the night drop to be (around 10 degrees) so maybe the "snake eggs" are specific to colubrid eggs and not "all" snake eggs. It's preset to do this automatically so maybe other "snake" settings don't do the drop. Vague information and a lot of hype is what I have found with this thing as well as a huge price tag.

I'll stick with my Clay Davenport design, thank you very much! Working great, holding humidity and temps at 89.5 degrees flawlessly! And I know this cost less to convert than the Juragon.

i would also like to thank clay i used clays design to help build mine. clay was nice enough to answer a few emails about building my incubator. and i finished it just in time for my first clutch of ball python eggs. here is the finished product.

It looks really good John.

Regards

wow!! Those are REALLY nice!!!

You guys are making me jealous!