what is the best incubator

reptyslick123

reptyslick123

New Member
Hi i will be hopefully breeding ambanja panther chameleon in some time and as it will be my first time breeding reptiles i was woundering what is the best incubator on the market for panther eggs as many incubator reli on the humiderty being regulated by you adding or betting rid of water. As it is may first time i want it all to be perfect the best incubator i have seen so far is a R-Com Juragon Pro Reptile Incubator Advanced Microprocessor Controlled if you know any more info i would real be very great full.
Thank you all
 
Regarding the lyon incubator;

I don't like to "bash" BUT I had one of those a few years ago and for the money it's a piece of junk!!!!! The acrylic door warps,the back-up wafer sticks and you have to keep it in sink with the "solid state temp. control" oh yea did I mention that it sticks too!!!! It lets too much light in so you should keep your eggs in a dark container or paint/cover-up the outside to minimize incomming light...NOT worth the big bucks I paid for it!!!! When I called lyon ind. about it they wanted me to send it in on my dime and they would "fix" it for me....Save your money and buy an Hovabator or one of the other brands on line....
 
Mine is now a reptipro....I got it on ebay but LLLreptile has the same type...Its sold under many different brand names but made by the same company! The only problem with it is the digital readout for the temp. is not that accurate...I just added a Springfield therometer with hygrometer( model# 91551 ) that sits on the inside. With that incubator my last clutch of Oustalets #42 of #45 hatched...Not too bad!!!
 
thanks for all of your comments i will have a look at all of them and do any of them regulate the humiderty by them selves or will i have to do that.
thanks
 
The kemp does.. I e-mailed them about if it heats and cools or if it just heats. So as soon as they e-mail me back I will let you know. I just want one that does both because it gets hot in texas.
 
For panther chameleons, here is my best fancy incubator:

myincubator.jpg

Seriously this is it. For panther chameleons if you can find a dark cabinet in your home that stays about 70-80 degrees, it is all you need and better than a constant temp incubator. This incubator is the cabinet under a sink in a bathroom. Those are veiled chameleon eggs in there at the moment. Humidity is regulated by using properly moistened substrate and keeping the lids sealed other than a very occasional egg check. I do mean very occasional too- some containers will not be opened at all for the duration if there are no obvious problems with the eggs inside. Perfect every time for me and perfect throughout incubation.

I also have some havobators and a variety of home-made forced air incubators for other lizards. My best is huge 5 day cooler that I modified with a heating element ripped out of a havobator, a computer case fan and a herpstat pro incubator thermostat controller (made by spyder robotics- I highly recommend). It keeps the entire incubator a nice constant temperature- no where in the incubator is the temperature more than 1/10 of a degree higher or 1/10 of a degree lower than the target temperature even when fully loaded, and there is room for about 50 sandwich containers of eggs. I can hook it up to a server I made from computer parts I pulled out of the local computer shop's trash (with their permission they have a junk pile of free stuff that consists of good but very dated parts, but year 2000 era parts on my server so slow to boot but works great for this simple purpose)and check my temperatures on the internet any time, and if temps malfunction the herpstat pro has an audible alarm and can call me on the phone and tell me something is wrong. It is overkill for panther chameleons which do best at room temperature incubation anyway.
 
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Glad to see someone else using the old closet method. I see so many losing whole clutches of eggs due to incubator malfunction or user error. I cant see taking a chance losing a yr and 1/2's work to a crappy incubator failure. Glad containers with vermic and water are all you ever need. :D
 
thanks for all your comment and knowledge that u have shared with me i have one final question that is the right humiderty to incubate panther chameleon eggs at to get the best results and how can i achive this.
thanks Alex:D
 
Well, with my method (see pics in this thread) you just dump a bunch of vermiculite in a bucket (maybe a gallon bucket would work nicely) and mostly fill it. Then you mostly fill the bucket of vermiculite with water. Then you reach in, grab a big handful, give it a big squeeze for a few seconds until practically all of the water that will squeeze out of it is has stopped dripping out, and you are left with a handful of slightly damp vermiculite. You put that in your sandwich container and fill the container about halfway full of it. Sink your eggs 1/2 to 3/4 into the vermiculite. Seal the lid. Make sure you get a good brand (rubbermaid is what I use currently). Some brands look like the others, but don't provide the airtight seal, which means things will evaporate and dry out during incubation and then you have to weight containers and add water and whatnot. If you choose a good brand like me, there is no evaporation and no need to weigh and add water during incubation. Because there is no evaporation, humidity in the container is always perfect- the result of the damp vermiculite you put in there.
 
No. One of the worlds foremost researchers on lizard incubation laughed at me for venting my containers back in the 90s. Was a revelation to me because I, along with everyone else in the hobby I knew of was venting. But in the research lab they did not vent and did not want to vent for some studies because they were studying things like CO2 levels effect on incubation, humidity levels, etc. Not a lot of ventilation underground is how I was teased for it. I haven't vented anything except really big lizard eggs (iguana size) ever since and have done great. Only time I vent is if I look inside and an egg looks questionable - I open to check it or remove it.
 
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I check mine about once a week. I tend to check more often at the beginning and end of incubation because that is when most eggs that are bad need to be removed and when babies start hatching and need to be removed, so in the middle months I might only check every 2 or 3 weeks.
 
thank you
so there is not a spersific humiderty that the eggs should be keeped at just damp vermiculite and then weighed, if container gets lighter add water untile same as the start weight.
thanks you
 
Yes, but with sealed containers like I use , you never have to weight them because humidity will remain constant- it has no way to escape the container. If you provide ventilation, then you will need to weigh every once in a while and bring water back up to weight.
 
thanks for all of your help but before i put the eggs in would like to check the humiderty, what level should it be at.
thanks alot
 
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