How do you incubate your eggs?

[ColleenT]

i would like to know how you all incubate your eggs, from the type of container, do you use vermiculite, how much water to add, how do you regulate temps, etc.. please tell me how you do it, if you have had good luck hatching the eggs.

[ColleenT]

so nobody here incubates their eggs?

[Darren179]

I like mine overeasy.

[Fat Cat]

I took "bed a beast" compact peat substrate ...soaked it in water ...then grabbed handfulls of it and squeezed out all the water I could with my bare hands ... they placed the squeezed substrate into a rubber maid container ... placed the eggs inthere ...seal the container air tight .... check the eggs once every few days or so to allow for air exchange and inspection ... I have a clutch in there for 4 weeks now ....and the eggs are growing ...so hopefully ... I keep the eggs on a shelf in my room ..however my room is 22 C at night and 28 during the day...so should be optimal temperature...GOOD LUCK

[ColleenT]

Thanks. Does it have to be air tight?

[Fat Cat]

Yeah ...it wont affect the eggs ... this way the humidty wont fluxuate .... if u open it every few days then it will be fine ...I did a similar idea with leo eggs ...except I checked them every week .. 100% success rate cant be wrong ..GOOD LUCK

[chamitch]

what abotu puttign them in moist perlite? and hwo do u move the eggs? just really carefully?

[Dark_Angel_25]

you don't need some kind of heat pad? or can you place it next to a space heater? I dunno, cause I have a moist hide box, so if I got a female and she layed eggs in there (which she would) couldn't I just leave them in the cage inthe moist hide??

[AnthonyC]

I incubate them at room temp (68-80 degrees F) in a Gladware container. The container has 4-6 small holes in it for ventilation, but that doesn't seem to affect the humidity level or the eggs. In fact, all the ciliatus breeders I know put air holes in their containers. For incubating medium, I put in 2 parts perlite to a 1 part water, but you can put more water (1:1 perlite/water ratio) and you'll probably be OK.

Here's an example of how I track changes.

I will put 100 grams of perlite and 50 grams of water in the container, and just for example, lets say that the container weighs 50 grams. That means that without eggs, it will weigh 200 grams ready to go. (I just figure 2 grams per egg as I add them, so I'm not even going to factor those in here)

This "prepared weight" is the weight that I will try to keep the container from dipping below throughout the incubation.

I will record that and then go back and weigh the container once or twice per week and then add enough water to make it weigh 200 grams (plus 2 grams per egg), or slightly more if I think I might be gone. If I go out of town or something, I just add in an extra 10 grams of water or so for safe measure.

Going back to the air holes, if you're afraid you'll dry the eggs out too quickly, you might find it interesting that if I put an extra 10 grams of water in the container (which I typically do), I only have to add water once every 10-14 days or so, in order to keep the container from ever dropping below it's original "prepared weight."

For whoever asked if you can let the eggs incubate in the nest box, yes you can, but the chances are that the eggs will go bad. If they do hatch, you'll have to get the babies out quickly or the adults will supposedly eat them.