I have my tortoise eggs in vermiculite, nestled inside small plastic tubs, holes in the sides and covered with the lids. The incubator is a Reptibator. It has a digital read-out on the lid, and I have a thermometer laying on the floor of the incubator. Going by the thermometer, which I wanted to be around 86F degrees, I set the digital read-out until the thermometer showed that temp. The read-out on the lid doesn't match, but that's ok. As long as the temp inside is where it want it, I'm happy.
So I finally broke down and bought one of those temperature reading point and shoot thingeys:
...and I thought, "What the heck. Let me check the eggs in the incubator." None of the eggs are showing the temperature I want. Some show upper 70's, some show lower 80's. The medium is also different temperatures.
No wonder my eggs take so long to hatch. I'm incubating them much too cool...that is, if I'm to believe what that yellow gizmo is telling me.
So I adjusted the read-out up to 90F, and to be on the safe side, I added another thermometer inside.
It shows 90F on the digital read-out, and the two thermometers inside show 86F. I had been using the thermometer on the left, and didn't realize the increments are too small. With the other, cheapy thermometer, I can plainly see that the temp is 30c, or 86F.
But this still doesn't speak to the problem of the different eggs being different temperatures when "gunned."
So I finally broke down and bought one of those temperature reading point and shoot thingeys:
...and I thought, "What the heck. Let me check the eggs in the incubator." None of the eggs are showing the temperature I want. Some show upper 70's, some show lower 80's. The medium is also different temperatures.
No wonder my eggs take so long to hatch. I'm incubating them much too cool...that is, if I'm to believe what that yellow gizmo is telling me.
So I adjusted the read-out up to 90F, and to be on the safe side, I added another thermometer inside.
It shows 90F on the digital read-out, and the two thermometers inside show 86F. I had been using the thermometer on the left, and didn't realize the increments are too small. With the other, cheapy thermometer, I can plainly see that the temp is 30c, or 86F.
But this still doesn't speak to the problem of the different eggs being different temperatures when "gunned."