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Hova Bators?

yea thought about a dimmer switch, but everytime I open the doors the temp will drop and it wont raise the temp back up as quickly as a regular ole thermostat will it? I was thinking about using the zoomed reptitemp one with the probe. my dumb luck trying to wire a dimmerswitch, ill prolly electricute myself BEFORE its even plugged up, but it is something to look into.
 
Jadormdrache said:
yea thought about a dimmer switch, but everytime I open the doors the temp will drop and it wont raise the temp back up as quickly as a regular ole thermostat will it? I was thinking about using the zoomed reptitemp one with the probe. my dumb luck trying to wire a dimmerswitch, ill prolly electricute myself BEFORE its even plugged up, but it is something to look into.
Click to expand...
You are correct, you don't want to use a dimmer or a rheostat on your incubator. You want a thermostat.

If you're using a Hovabator, you already have a thermostat. The reasons people bypass the Hovabator's thermostat and put another thermostat in control of the temps are: 1) the Hovabator's wafer thermostat fluctuates 2 or more degrees around the temp it is set for, and that can be too much fluctuation, and 2) some people have had the wafer thermostat stop working and cook their eggs :( . Good thermostats with a probe, which is what you'd want, are expensive.
 
Jadormdrache said:
yea thought about a dimmer switch, but everytime I open the doors the temp will drop and it wont raise the temp back up as quickly as a regular ole thermostat will it? I was thinking about using the zoomed reptitemp one with the probe. my dumb luck trying to wire a dimmerswitch, ill prolly electricute myself BEFORE its even plugged up, but it is something to look into.
Click to expand...

Are you building an incubator or getting a hova bator? The hova bator has a wafer type thermostat, I just use an ESU digital thermometer to be bale to check the inside temp without opening it up, it comes with a mercury thermometer.

I have one incubator I just built from a styro fish box with a piece of 11" flexwatt and used a dimmer switch with the EsU digital thermometer and its working great so far, temps stay within 1 degree all the time, nothing it in yet though lol
 
leaftail said:
You are correct, you don't want to use a dimmer or a rheostat on your incubator. You want a thermostat.
Click to expand...

Right, you would not want a dimmer switch on a commercial incubator!

But if you are making one with flex watt, a dimmer should work fine, still testing though its only been a couple of days.
 
Wendy, all it would take is a temp spike outside of the incubator to through the temps way off inside..... If you are there to correct it I guess it would be ok but who will sit infront of the incubator while you are not home or sleeping..... A temp spike for any duration is no good and you can wind up with dead eggs or deformed hatchlings..... It is best to use a thermostat when ever you are incubating eggs..... Here is a pic of an incubator I built.... It only slides up and down a half of a degree..... I use a thermostat to regulate the temps....

2768.JPG
 
Gregg M said:
Wendy, all it would take is a temp spike outside of the incubator to through the temps way off inside..... If you are there to correct it I guess it would be ok but who will sit infront of the incubator while you are not home or sleeping..... A temp spike for any duration is no good and you can wind up with dead eggs or deformed hatchlings..... It is best to use a thermostat when ever you are incubating eggs..... Here is a pic of an incubator I built.... It only slides up and down a half of a degree..... I use a thermostat to regulate the temps....

2768.JPG
Click to expand...

Very true Gregg, and thats the problem with the Hova Bators, if the temp in the room goes up the temp in the incubator goes up and a thermostat is the only way to fix that problem.

All of my incubators are in my bedroom that stays a constant temp of 72 so my inside temps are steady.

Basically, If the temp in the room the incubator is in goes above the incubator setting and you don't have a thermostat the incubator temp will go up as well. So you either have to have the incubators in a room with constant temps or a thermostat.
 
PS how did you do that one, is it an old microwave? and whats the heating element?

I would really like something bigger that I can put shelves in....
 
building one out of an old refridgerator like the guy at captive bred did. it'll go in the basement and temps are pretty stable down there, probably the most stable temps in the house.
 
If you are building one with flex watt the safest would be a thermostat, just in case temps raise up some. With a dimmer switch the amount of power is changed makign it change the temp but if its in a area you are not able to check and the temps go up 3 or 4 degress the temp in the incubator will go up too.

A dimmer is working fine on my fish box set up but its not in use yet but the temp is set at 82 and it has gone no higher than 82.4 and no lower than 81.7 but it is in a room that is always the same temp.

In a basement the temp may drop a few degress at night and you would need a thermostat to be safe.
 
That is a wine refridgerator that I bought for 60 bucks..... The heating elements I use for my "home made" incubators are the ones they use in hovabators..... The heating element in hovas are great but the temp control system and the foam box stink......

Wendy you are correct about them having to be in a room that has a constant temp..... That is the thing I dont like about hovas..... Especially being that my house does not stay constant and my reptile room is too hot to incubate eggs in...... With the wine fridge, the outside temps do not affect the temps inside the incubator.....
 
Gregg M said:
That is a wine refridgerator that I bought for 60 bucks..... The heating elements I use for my "home made" incubators are the ones they use in hovabators..... The heating element in hovas are great but the temp control system and the foam box stink......

Wendy you are correct about them having to be in a room that has a constant temp..... That is the thing I dont like about hovas..... Especially being that my house does not stay constant and my reptile room is too hot to incubate eggs in...... With the wine fridge, the outside temps do not affect the temps inside the incubator.....
Click to expand...

Great idea, I know a salvage guy here with a lot of non working microwaves and those apartment sized refidgerators, I could take out the heating element from one of my hovabators and do soemthing like that!

I know I need more room very soon with both hovabators full and the "fish box" will be full with the next egg cycle from my girls.
 
Ok, so my plan is really starting to take shape :cool:

I think i'm going to go with the hova, and have my dad "spiffy up" the temp control system, we apparently have thermostats hanging out in the garage. (ahh the benifites of living with an electronics engineer :raspberry )

I found the perfect place to store the incubator. I have a window seat in my bedroom with storage space underneath, and a little door in the front, it it always the same temp in there, but i'm going to clear it out and add some more insulation!

I'm going to start seriously looking (and saving for shipping :bawling: ) for a male starting april 1st, which also happens to be pay day!

And i have thought up another couple questions...

1) Suppliments, right now i have terrafauna Reptocal, it claims to have calcium, phosphorus, vit a, d, b, e. is that good enough? would anyone recomend anything different? right now i suppliment every other(ish) feeding, and always have it available. should i bump my female up to every feeding?

2) Could someone point me to a very simple step by step guide for breeding, preferable one that has o good timescale so i can judge when things are supposed to happen? maybe even a book?

Thanks!
 
Devious_bunny said:
1) Suppliments, right now i have terrafauna Reptocal, it claims to have calcium, phosphorus, vit a, d, b, e. is that good enough? would anyone recomend anything different? right now i suppliment every other(ish) feeding, and always have it available. should i bump my female up to every feeding?

2) Could someone point me to a very simple step by step guide for breeding, preferable one that has o good timescale so i can judge when things are supposed to happen? maybe even a book?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use minerall "O" on every feeding and leave a small dish of calcium in the cage at all times.

Make sure to gutload your feeders too!

here is a great site with info on breeding and tons of other very helpful topics:
http://www.thegeckospot.com/leobreeding.html
 
Devious_bunny said:
I always do :D

Thanks for the link !
Click to expand...

No problem, that is a great site, I have a few books too but its faster for me to go to thegeckospot and click what I am looking for and have nice pics and info!
 
dragonflyreptiles said:
I use minerall "O" on every feeding and leave a small dish of calcium in the cage at all times.
Click to expand...


You should not be using Miner-all O for your geckos unless you have them outside basking in the sun a good part of the day. 'O' contains little or no D3, which 'O'utdoor animals synthesize from the sun. Miner-all 'I' contains D3, for 'I'ndoor animals that don't get outside to bask and make their own. Most people don't have their nocturnal leopard geckos out basking, so I'm pretty sure they should be on I.

It is already high in calcium, so I just keep the mealworm dish in at all times with some Miner-all in it, then there's no need for another calcium dish. Of course this isn't possible if they're eating crickets.

The best book on leopard geckos is the Leopard Gecko Manual from Philippe de Vosjoli, et al. There really is no secret formula to breeding, it just takes mature (45-50g+) females that are ideally a year old, and year-ish old males that are healthy. They don't need any special cooling period like many reptiles do. They'll naturally breed between Jan/Feb and Sep/Oct. Once the females start laying, they'll continue to lay every 2-4 weeks until they're done. This is why its so important to not breed younger, skinnier geckos. Egg laying takes a lot out of them and some will lose weight during the season.

We can't stress the importance of quarantine enough. If you get a pair of adult leos who are old enough and big enough to breed, don't keep them together for ideally 90 days and monitor them to ensure they're not sick or parasitized. It's best to get at least one fecal during this time, two would be better. Then, if all is healthy and you want to go through with it, they should be stabilized enough to breed as long as it's not Aug/Sep when they'd normally be stopping for the season. I bred my first pair in May and started getting babies in late July-Aug, I believe.
 
Personally I dont use minerall O except for the calcium dish, but it seems her geckos are healthy enough to reproduce, so that means they re getting enough D3. leopard geckos are nocturnal like you said so their system would most likely be very efficient with D3 as they dont get much sunlight in nature.
 
I feed mealies and crix, mealies in the cage at all tiems and crix 2 times a week. All of my feeders are dusted with Mineral O and the calcium dish is for the females, they lick it quite a bit so Id never take it out.

Ill look into the D3 more but from what I understand, and I could be wrong, the leos get plenty of D3 from the meailes and crix themselves and can overdose if you provide the D3 supplements on top of the food intake.

Just a few links that mention not using D3 at all or very little as to not induce an overdose:

http://www.reptilecare.com/leopardbreed.htm
http://www.repticzone.com/caresheets/534.html
 
Wendy,

Please let me know what you find out. I've been raising leopard and fattails for 6 years now and have produced hundreds of babies without any 'overdose' of anything, all with Miner-all I. However, I see where it's mentioned several times that they don't necessarily need it, so I'll keep looking into it as well. Thanks for the heads up on this one.

Has anyone ever owned, or seen a gecko that has overdosed on calcium or D3? If so, what were the symptoms, how was it diagnosed, was it fatal, and if not, how is the gecko now? This may be better to move to its own thread, since it has nothing to do with incubators.
 
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