Sulcata Eggs Incubator DIY

[robintam]

Hi, I am new to hatching Sulcata's eggs. I am DIYing an incubator and need your professional advice.

1. If the incubator need holes at the top? to bring the outside fresh air in and warm air from the inside out?

2. What is the function of the holes? for oxygen to the eggs?

2. The temperature here is around 29 to 33 degrees Celsius every day. With this temperature, do I still need a heat pad and cooling fan for the incubator?

3. Does The thermostat need to connect with the heat pad and cooling fan? OR it only needs to connect to the heat pad and let the cooling fan run 24 hours a day.

4. Which thermostat i need? thermostat that controls the heat pad only or the thermostat that can control heat and cool?


Thank You

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

@Tom might be able to help you. Check this thread out, it answers some of your questions: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-incubate-eggs-and-start-hatchlings.124266/

 

[Tom]

Hi, I am new to hatching Sulcata's eggs. I am DIYing an incubator and need your professional advice.

1. If the incubator need holes at the top? to bring the outside fresh air in and warm air from the inside out?

2. What is the function of the holes? for oxygen to the eggs?

2. The temperature here is around 29 to 33 degrees Celsius every day. With this temperature, do I still need a heat pad and cooling fan for the incubator?

3. Does The thermostat need to connect with the heat pad and cooling fan? OR it only needs to connect to the heat pad and let the cooling fan run 24 hours a day.

4. Which thermostat i need? thermostat that controls the heat pad only or the thermostat that can control heat and cool?


Thank You

These questions indicate that you don't understand the goal. What is the goal? The goal is to create a chamber with high humidity and a steady temperature between 30 and 32C. The answers to all of these questions depend on what your thermometer and hygrometer say. No one can tell you, but I'll try to explain further:
1. Holes at the top will let your heat and humidity out. You need to run this incubator for several days before you put the eggs in it. The eggs can stay in the ground for weeks while you sort out these details. Very little ventilation should be needed for an incubation chamber. Think of how much air circulation there would be in a buried nest 35-50cm underground.
2. Air exchange would be their function. It should not be needed.
2 again. 29C is too cool and your eggs won't develop well. 33 is too hot and this will cook your developing embryos. The eggs must stay between 30 and 32C. Best to set them right in the middle at 31C and keep it as close to that as you can. Fans do not cool unless they are sucking in cooler air from outside the incubator. This would not be good. Fans move air. A fan in a closed chamber, like an incubator, is only going to push the enclosed air around. It is not going to cool anything. A heating pad is probably not going to be an effective way of heating your incubator. What kind of heating pad? Where will it be mounted?
3. Yes, the thermostat must be connected to the heating elements. You probably don't need a fan, but this depends on what sort of incubator you are making. Pictures and more description will help us to advise you. Some large incubators can benefit from small computer fans with adjustable speed to help keep temperatures more even and stable throughout the whole incubator. Smaller incubators don't need a fan.
4. You need a "digital proportional" thermostat. Also called a "dimming thermostat" in Europe. A regular on/off type thermostat will not keep the temperature stable enough. The incubator should stay in an area of your house that stays below the incubation temperature. Then you will rely on the thermostat and heating element to give off enough heat to keep the temperature stable and correct. If you have an area of your house that stays, 32C all the time, then you don't need an incubator at all. But the temperature can't drop below 30 or go above 32.

I don't know about the ants, other egg predators or the rain, but I bet you could let your eggs incubate in the ground there. The depth of the nest keeps the temperature stable. Eggs will incubate in the ground here in summer time. The above ground temps range from 12C on a cold summer night to 48C on a hot summer day. Most days are around 18C at night and 37C during the day, and sulcata eggs will hatch out of the ground here.