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Opinions on incubating

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nate212

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I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on letting the females incubate the eggs themselves or using an incubator?


1.0 solar ball 50% het pied (Joey)
0.1 mojave (yumi)
0.1 spider (char)
0.1 yellowbelly (Lola)
0.1 het orange ghost (Luna)
1.0 reduced pattern firefly (Monty)
 
I have always used an incubator...

Even if you do Maternal Incubation it is good to have an incubator ready to go also...Unless you don't care if the eggs hatch...

They aren't all good moms!
 
I use an incubator. Unless your reptile room has an independent thermostat from the rest of your house and you are comfortable babysitting humidity levels in the enclosure constantly, then I would recommend an incubator.
 
I agree humidity levels are a lot harder to keep in an enclosure rather than a sealed container inside an incubator. Its all personal preference though another thing id like to point out is when a female maternally incubates thats another sixty days without food so getting her back up to size for the next season would be pretty tough.
 
I do maternal primarily these days. Although I just had my non compliant female this season. I do not recommend it unless you are a 10-20 year Veteran keeping reptiles. IMHO.
 
When I was not using a heated room I would never think about it, but this year I have incubated leopard gecko eggs in a delicup set up on the shelf. They incubated around 83F and hatched 50 days later...they are all doing good and I have another clutch incubating right now. This has made me strongly consider trying maternal incubation with my gtps and balls. I do not breed anyone back to back, personal preference, so the maternal fast is not a huge concern for me.

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Maternal all the way
 

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Personally I like incubating the eggs. I have one female that is not the best parent in the world...
 
They eat while maternally incubating so when the babies hatch, they are already back to prelay weight.
 

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My personal preference is to pull the eggs and incubate them artificially. That doesn't necessarily mean you need an incubator though. This year I tried just setting some eggs up in shoeboxes, in vermiculite, and put them on a shelf. The room is kept at 88 degrees so my only concern was humidity which turned out to be a non issue. The first clutch pipped today and all the eggs look good. Are you able to keep the mom at the right temp? How's your humidity control working out?
 
Well I built my incubator and it's working wonderfully. I had a 7 egg clutch with only 1 dud. Was even able to pull mama from them perfectly fine aswell. They had healthy veins and everything :) now the waiting game. I have no idea what are the odds for this clutch since she came to me pre paired up. So excited to find out


1.0 solar ball 50% het pied (Joey)
0.1 mojave (yumi)
0.1 spider (char)
0.1 yellowbelly (Lola)
0.1 het orange ghost (Luna)
1.0 reduced pattern firefly (Monty)
 
What did you build it out of? I made all mine out of soda display coolers like the ones you see at the gas station. They're well insulated, double paned glass door so you can look in without opening the door. Add some heat tape, a good thermostat, and you're good to go. I also added a humidifier in one but it's not necessary when there's a lot of eggs in there.
 
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