An incubator that WORKS

[tucc185]

So, having incubated several clutches of eggs more or less successfully over the last few years, I've never been impressed with commercially available incbuators for chameleons. I think the main issue is that they're all designed to heat eggs where many chams require cooling (at least for part of the incubation period). Living in FL, the closet method works best but my room temps are often well above 85 in the summer which is just too high for many species.

I have a female panther with eggs on the way and I'm trying to plan out the best way to incubate them. Does anyone with experience incubating have any advice? I was considering getting a wine cooler and retrofitting it with a reliable thermostat so I could cool eggs down for a while. Has anyone done this before? Anyone with experience doing something of this nature? I'd love to hear what members here have done, especially in terms of cooling eggs for montane species.

Thanks for any input!

 

[tucc185]

Anyone? I'd love to hear from anyone with experience incubating montanes.

 

[Lancecham]

I looked for a few years in finding a very good incubator that cools and heats. I have the same problem as you, due to the fact that my house temperature in the summer is too hot for my cham eggs.
I have tried a few different cheap incubators that heat and cool over the years, but they are very unreliable. Some people have no problems, but many others have had numerous problems such as the thermostat malfunctioning and either cooking the eggs or the eggs getting too cold. Another problem with these incubators is the temperature swing. The tempature swing of when the incubatore starts to heat and when it starts to cool can be 7 to 8 degrees.

About 8 months ago, I found this incubator. It heats and cools and has been flawless. The temperature swing on the heat cycle is 1/5 of a degree and the temperature swing on the cooling cycle is the same.
The only draw back to this incubator is the cost. But I have lost 300 panther eggs due to the unreliable cheap heating/cooling incubators. So, in my eyes, it is worth the cost.
http://www.aveyincubator.com/arti.htm

 

[coldbloodedAL]

I looked for a few years in finding a very good incubator that cools and heats. I have the same problem as you, due to the fact that my house temperature in the summer is too hot for my cham eggs.
I have tried a few different cheap incubators that heat and cool over the years, but they are very unreliable. Some people have no problems, but many others have had numerous problems such as the thermostat malfunctioning and either cooking the eggs or the eggs getting too cold. Another problem with these incubators is the temperature swing. The tempature swing of when the incubatore starts to heat and when it starts to cool can be 7 to 8 degrees.

About 8 months ago, I found this incubator. It heats and cools and has been flawless. The temperature swing on the heat cycle is 1/5 of a degree and the temperature swing on the cooling cycle is the same.
The only draw back to this incubator is the cost. But I have lost 300 panther eggs due to the unreliable cheap heating/cooling incubators. So, in my eyes, it is worth the cost.
http://www.aveyincubator.com/arti.htm

Every time this question comes up, i direct people straight to Avey... For the amount thats people spend on the cheap unreliable incubators over the years, they can nearly afford one of these.
Do yourself a favor everyone and go with an avey, save yourself the trouble and heartbreak of loosing eggs.

 

[tucc185]

Thanks for the recommendation- I had never seen this incubator before. The price is high but realistically if it saves you a clutch of 25 panther eggs it's already paid for itself. A bit out of the budget right now but as temps here are starting to cool anyways it's something to start saving for before it heats up again. Definitely a worthwhile investment once I start working with true montane species again.

I am curious if anyone has done a DIY cooling incubator with a wine cooler. I imagine depending on how accurate the thermostat/controller you rigged it up to it could work pretty well.

 

[Dr O]

I'm in Florida too and am having great success with the closet tehnique; the closet in our guest bathroom hovers around 74. I just don't trust any incubator either and have read way too many horror stories. no way am I sacrificing my eggs to some cheap electronics or a power surge/outage. unless something was made that had a serious backup system for power outages, I'll never consider it.

on a different note, the site that you linked to specifically calls out to chameleon breeders to be able to control their sex ratios by controlling temperature. am I missing some recent research that talks about various cham species having temperature dependent incubation?

 

[UrbanChameleon]

I'm pretty positive that Texas Ranger has done the wine cooler incubator. Try and send them a PM, and I'm sure they can help you out. I think it was successful too.

 

[erik775]

http://www.amazon.com/ReptiPro-6000-Incubator-Automatic-Turners/dp/B007AG9BZ2
has any one ever used this one and had succsess?i just bought one to put my panther eggs in dut to the high california temps...i have my eggs in tupper wear and with lids i just use it for the temps to stay the same instead of having them in my house in the mid 80s...

 

[reptileman]

http://www.amazon.com/ReptiPro-6000-Incubator-Automatic-Turners/dp/B007AG9BZ2
has any one ever used this one and had succsess?i just bought one to put my panther eggs in dut to the high california temps...i have my eggs in tupper wear and with lids i just use it for the temps to stay the same instead of having them in my house in the mid 80s...

I have this incubator,it works great but i had the older version and it sucked and couldnt keep a steady temp, if I could go back I would save and invest in either a hotbox at hotboxincubators.com or the one lancecham meantioned, as one of those will be my future incubator when the funds are available.

 

[erik775]

I have this incubator,it works great but i had the older version and it sucked and couldnt keep a steady temp, if I could go back I would save and invest in either a hotbox at hotboxincubators.com or the one lancecham meantioned, as one of those will be my future incubator when the funds are available.

Oh dam..i just noticed that mine does looks older...how does urs look...not too sure if mine is the older one...

 

[tucc185]

I have this incubator,it works great but i had the older version and it sucked and couldnt keep a steady temp, if I could go back I would save and invest in either a hotbox at hotboxincubators.com or the one lancecham meantioned, as one of those will be my future incubator when the funds are available.

I see the hotbox incubator guys at reptile shows quite a bit, and they have a great product, but I believe they are very much geared toward snake breeders, and I'm pretty sure none of their incubators cool.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

on a different note, the site that you linked to specifically calls out to chameleon breeders to be able to control their sex ratios by controlling temperature. am I missing some recent research that talks about various cham species having temperature dependent incubation?

I'd like to hear thoughts on this as well! The studies I've read say there is no reliable correlatin between temperature and sex determination, at least in veileds and I think in panthers as well. Is that what you guys have seen too?

 

[erik775]

Should i be ok with my incubator as long as I'm getting the steady same temperature?it has a fan for cooling also...

 

[Wykd]

I'm pretty positive that Texas Ranger has done the wine cooler incubator. Try and send them a PM, and I'm sure they can help you out. I think it was successful too.

A bud of mine uses a wine cooler he got off e-bay for incubating his reptiles. I dunno how he does it exactly because when I looked into getting one for incubating I could not find one that went to the mid 70's range, most were 45-65 temp range.

 

[reptileman]

I see the hotbox incubator guys at reptile shows quite a bit, and they have a great product, but I believe they are very much geared toward snake breeders, and I'm pretty sure none of their incubators cool.

I may have overlooked whether hotbox cools all I know if I contacted them and they said they can make one that would be good for chameleon eggs, I assume it would have some way to cool but I have to look back, with that in question I would say then best bet is the expensive one that others recommended.