egg question

[murdocjunior]

Ok Im new at this but i found 17 sully eggs my Lucy laid last week and currently in the incubator. My question is am i supose to mist the eggs everyday? The eggs are 3/4 barried in vermiculite. Thanks

 

[N2TORTS]

No Need to mist the eggs!... you dont want them to get
wet actually. but keep your humidty up to 80% within the incubator.
As a substrate , vermiculite works well and absorbs water with no mold factor. If need be, a small dish with water can be placed wthin your " cooker" to keep humidty up.
happy hatch~n
JD~

 

[onarock]

What kind of incubator do you use? No, I would not spay them. If there is enough room in the incubator I would recommend a large shallow dish for humidity. I have also used smaller dishes with sponges on top to help increase the surface area. I have also used Juragon incubators(however its spelled and I'm not going to look it up) and those you just ad water to them and set the humidity and temp levels... didnt like them. Hovabators are cool and they keep the temp constant, but you have to provide the humidity source. Is that the container your going to keep them in? Have fun
Signed, Addicted to Candling

 

[Tom]

I'm using three different types of incubators right now and all of them have water channels molded in to the bottom. I fill the channels and keep my eggs in slightly damp vermiculite in plastic shoe boxes with the lids on. I set the shoe boxes in the incubator on top of all the little water-filled channels. I only have to add water to the channels two or three times during the course of a 3-4 month incubation period. Sometimes I'll add just a little water to the vermiculite when I first see them starting to pip. I think that was Danny's tip, or maybe GB... not sure who to give the credit to.

Paul when you candle, do you lift the eggs up and out of the media? Also, I don't clean my eggs when I pull them out of the ground and it makes it much harder to candle them since they have dirt/mud patches all over them. Do you have a method for cleaning yours? I'm terrible at candling, I usually don't see much other than color changes and areas of opacity just before they hatch.

 

[murdocjunior]

Acually i made a homemade incubator that was successful for my 2 leopard gecko eggs. i got a stiraphome ice chest put two bricks in it then filled with water about 3 inches high, put an aquatic heater then set the plastic show box with vermiculite with the eggs on top of the bricks. And Tom no i didnt clean the eggs i didnt want to hurt the eggs so i kept it as simple as possible, is there a great and safe way to clean them? And is it nessesary to candle them or can it be a suprise? By the way i open the lid and check the eggs every morning for mold or anything out of the ordinary. Thanks Tom and all of yall other responses.

 

[onarock]

Tom, I would like to know more about the types of incubators you use.

Durring the first 6-8 weeks there doesnt seem to be much reason to actually pick the egg up. I have found that durring the final weeks of incubation if you really want to see whats going on picking them up might be necessary as the embryo (tortoise) will move about or switch position. Plus, the further you go along in development the harder it becomes to really see anything from the top.

I clean my eggs after I gather them, it makes candling alot easier. I use the buddy system. My 9yo son grabbs the eggs as they are layed and I place them in a container. I have used damp towels to clean them off as well as running the sink with luke warm water and washing them in that using an old wash cloth. I dont worry about turning the eggs while I am cleaning, because it can take up to 48 hours for them to settle (I only have experience with 8 hours myself, meaning I gathered them up 8 hours after they were layed and still turned and washed them and got the same fertility). I date them and determine their orientation and place them in the incubator, and thats it.

I have also dug up eggs at another persons home weeks after they were layed, but I was careful of their orientation in the nest marking x side up. I brought them home and washed them in luke warm water in the sink, careful not to move them too much. Placed them in the incubator and almost all of them are fertile and incubating as I write this (gpp/gpb hybrids).

 

[murdocjunior]

Oh Ok so u can rinse them out with luke warm water? And if u turn them within 48 hrs its ok? Thanks

 

[onarock]

I can't give you first hand experience about the 48 hours thing as I only have experience with 8. I would say you might not want to press it to the full 48, but if you absolutely had to, theoretically (<-- spelling mistake I'm sure), you could.

Oh Ok so u can rinse them out with luke warm water? And if u turn them within 48 hrs its ok? Thanks

 

[Tom]

I always let them finish laying and walk away and then I go dig them up.

Paul, I have a still air Hovabator, a Little Giant and the new ZooMed Digital incubator. In the past I've always used the Hovabators and never had any problems with them. The ZooMed one came from LLL Reptile at the Pomona Show in January and its working perfectly. I bought the Little Giant for Cory when he had some unexpected leopard eggs and the first one shorted out on us. We got it replaced and the replacement is working fine. I have a second Little Giant standing by for more eggs. I'm all out of room now. If I get any more eggs this season it will be pressed into service.

 

[Yvonne G]

When I was raising bantam ducks I was told not to wash off the eggs as they had a protective coating over them put there during the laying process. I would assume the same holds true for tortoise eggs.

But the problem is, they are usually so dirty from being in a dirt hole that you really don't want all that dirt in your incubator.

So I try to let the faucet gently wash off the dirt, but I don't scrub with my hand at all, so the mucous coating stays on the egg. They don't come real clean, but the loose dirt washes off.

 

[onarock]

Hovabators work great in my opinion and like you said if there is an issue you can get replacement parts for them. I probably would still use them, but with the amount of eggs I get, its just not practical for me. Greg (Aldabraman) has the space to use them and seems happy with them as well. I would be interested to hear any feedback with that Zoo Med incubator. It looks like a more high teck Hovabator. I now use a converted 20cf upright freezer.

I always let them finish laying and walk away and then I go dig them up.

Paul, I have a still air Hovabator, a Little Giant and the new ZooMed Digital incubator. In the past I've always used the Hovabators and never had any problems with them. The ZooMed one came from LLL Reptile at the Pomona Show in January and its working perfectly. I bought the Little Giant for Cory when he had some unexpected leopard eggs and the first one shorted out on us. We got it replaced and the replacement is working fine. I have a second Little Giant standing by for more eggs. I'm all out of room now. If I get any more eggs this season it will be pressed into service.

 

[Tom]

The ZooMed one has a digital read out that shows humidity and temp. I find the temp to be off by about three degrees on my model. I have two "mercury" thermometers, two digitals and a wireless digital and I compare them all to make an educated guess at what the temp actually is. The two mercury therms and two of the digitals always read exactly the same, so I trust them. So far so good. Nothing wrong with the Zoomed, but its the same size as the others and I had to cover a ton of ventilation holes on the bottom of it, so my eggs and media don't dry out. It has some sort of digitally controlled "pulse" technology, so its supposed to control the temperature more accurately and keep the temp more stable. As I said all three work just fine and hold a steady temp. I'm using them side by side, literally, on a roach shelf in the reptile room.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Hovabators work great in my opinion and like you said if there is an issue you can get replacement parts for them. I probably would still use them, but with the amount of eggs I get, its just not practical for me. Greg (Aldabraman) has the space to use them and seems happy with them as well. I would be interested to hear any feedback with that Zoo Med incubator. It looks like a more high teck Hovabator. I now use a converted 20cf upright freezer.

I always let them finish laying and walk away and then I go dig them up.

Paul, I have a still air Hovabator, a Little Giant and the new ZooMed Digital incubator. In the past I've always used the Hovabators and never had any problems with them. The ZooMed one came from LLL Reptile at the Pomona Show in January and its working perfectly. I bought the Little Giant for Cory when he had some unexpected leopard eggs and the first one shorted out on us. We got it replaced and the replacement is working fine. I have a second Little Giant standing by for more eggs. I'm all out of room now. If I get any more eggs this season it will be pressed into service.

We have tried several incubators and found the Little Giants are best for us. We have never had an issue with one, however we have many spares for backup and they are checked several times a day. Sometimes we have 13 to 15 incubators going at one time. I do clean the eggs with a lightly wet cloth and/or rub the majority of the dirt off with my finger. Our eggs are usually gotten at the time they are being laid. I have always known about the widow to rotate them, Always thought it was 12 hours. I do not mist the eggs ever, control humidity by water in a dish in the center of the incubator. I do start out with 50/50 vermiculite/water. Temperature is usually 86f and humidity is around 90% to 93%. Incubation time is 104 to 130 days usually.