New years day redfoot eggs

[gustaf]

I got a new years day gift. My 12" female suriname redfoot layed five eggs. She started laying before dark and finished up after dark around 8 p.m. i carefullly dug them up around 10 that night and placed them in my incubator. I sure hope they will hatch. This i my first attempt at incubating.

 

[gustaf]

This is my home made incubator. I built it with one inch foam board. I lined it with ceramic tile. I thought this might help it to hold a steady temp better. I used THG heat tape from Reptile Basics. I used one of those st1000 thermostats. Right now im quite frustrated. My st1000 is set at 85.6 degrees and thats what it reads. When the temp drops 0.3° below that it turns on. I have two other thermometer/hygrometers and they all read different. My walmart one usually says 86. But i just got a new one today from petsmart. Its an "all living things" brand and it reads 88°.the probes are in about the same place. I dont know which to believe. The walmart one says the humidy is 72% and the petsmart one says 80%. They were farther apart for awhile. I really want the temp to be 85 to 86. Im not looking to get temp sexed females. I just want healthy babies without extra scutes, not that its a terrible thing to have extra scutes. I just think 85-86ish is a good safe temp range. But i dont know which thermometer is most accurate. Aargh! Any suggestions?

 

[gustaf]

Now the 'Acu rite' from walmart says 78% humidity and the 'All living things' one says 99%

 

[Anyfoot]

Most hygrometers are only accurate to +/-5%. Do you know how accurate the all living things gauge works to with temp and humidity. Can you look on net to see how accurate all your gauges work to.

 

[Anyfoot]

just researched the all living things gauge and from what i've read holding a wet finger in the air is more accurate.

 

[stojanovski92113]

Congrats

 

[allegraf]

I think 85-86 is a tad high. I incubate at 83-84f, and have gotten a mix of m/f. Congrats! Now the fun begins after a long wait. Best part is seeing what hatches.

 

[Falcon70]

Very cool... Best of luck!

 

[Anyfoot]

Please keep us informed on what you do and the progress of you eggs. Bet you are excited, I'm not at this stage yet and anything I can learn from others is good.That incubator you made looks awesome. Have you sorted your gauges out yet?

 

[gustaf]

Thanks guys for the encouragement and advice. I think im getting the gauges sorted out. I will update you with more specifics when i have more time after a bit.

 

[gustaf]

Ok i guess im kind of obsessing over this but im still not satisfied. Ive tried several different thermometers... digital and anolog. Some read the same some dont. I think i will get a murcury thermometer and compare the others to it. That may be the most accurate way to see which is right. I have two acu-rites and sometime they match and sometimes they are off by 2°. The problem with them is that they only seem to change at 2° increments. One will say 84 while the other will say 82. Sometimes they read the same. I like the ones that read in 10ths of a degree. But the all living things therm always reads about 2° higher than all the others. Sometimes the others all read within about a degree of each other.

 

[gustaf]

I think 85-86 is a tad high. I incubate at 83-84f, and have gotten a mix of m/f. Congrats! Now the fun begins after a long wait. Best part is seeing what hatches.

Thanks for the temp advice allegraf. I have read some contradictory recomendations for redfoot temps so i just went with that. I went ahead and reset my thermostat to 84.5 after reading your post. Of course im not sure if its exactly accurate or not.

 

[gustaf]

I think 85-86 is a tad high. I incubate at 83-84f, and have gotten a mix of m/f. Congrats! Now the fun begins after a long wait. Best part is seeing what hatches.

About how many days in your experience is the average amount of days until hatch?

 

[gustaf]

Ok. I might be getting somewhere. I have 4 thermometers displaying the same temp. 84. Two analog and two digital. And my thermostat is set at 84.5. The 'all living things' therm reads 86.7. So i think that one is inacurate. Im still gonna put a murcury thermometer in there to campare with. Lol

 

[gustaf]

Please keep us informed on what you do and the progress of you eggs. Bet you are excited, I'm not at this stage yet and anything I can learn from others is good.That incubator you made looks awesome. Have you sorted your gauges out yet?

Ok im pretty happy now. Im going to return the 'all living things' thermometer.

I have my st1000 thermostat set at 29°C (it doesn't display F), which converts to 84.2° F.

The 5 other thermometers all say 84°, which tells me my st1000 is pretty accurate.

I went out and bought a liqiud thermometer. I dont think its actual mercury though. Not sure you can even buy those anymore. It has the red liquid that rises up the tube as the temp goes up. I made sure to get one that had a pretty easy to read scale. It matched up perfectly with the others at 84°F.

2 hygrometers match pretty closely at around 80% relative humidity. The one I'm returning is all over the place.

But now im happy with the temps and the humidity. So really, in spite of all of this the temps never got above 86 or below 83. So hopefully i didnt hurt my eggs any during this first few days of incubation.

Reptile basics sells a 'vivarium electronics' digital thermometer/hygrometer combo. I may order that and see how it works.

I will keep you all posted along the way.
Thanks guys.