Incubator recommendations?

[Lolo76]

Since both Mona & Nerissa have been locking for a while now, I guess it's time to get an incubator! Anyone have recommendations on one that's easy to use, good for chilly climates, and the right size for 2-3 clutches? Oh, and preferably around $100-150 not including the thermostat (I already have a spare that should work fine). So far I've only looked into the J&J or Hova-bator, and also considered building my own... but I'm really not handy like that, and would be too afraid of making a costly mistake. Any thoughts?

[AMPearce]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you, first year breeding and thinking I gonna need to get an incubator before too long. I've been looking at the ones here: http://www.jwexotics.com/economyincs.html they're pretty good price and you can get ithem with or without the thermostat.

[pavlovk1025]

I put an ad out for broken mini fridges and got two of em. 3 ft of flexwatt and a thermostat and you're gold. You can do the window thing, but its not necessary. And you can put a fan in it, but you dont have. Its easy-ish, even for the those least handy.

[Lolo76]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you, first year breeding and thinking I gonna need to get an incubator before too long. I've been looking at the ones here: http://www.jwexotics.com/economyincs.html they're pretty good price and you can get ithem with or without the thermostat.

Oops! I meant to say JW, not J&J. Always getting those two confused, especially since each one has sold me a snake. I may just go with JW's, since I have heard good things about them - whereas the Hova-bator seems to have mixed reviews.

[Shadera]

If you can get hold of an old fridge or an old catering hotbox, you can make your own dirt cheap. Both are made to keep stable temps are are perfect for DIY. I use a catering hotbox that is huge, has a glass front door, and only cost me $20 to get the guy to haul it to my house. All it then needed was some prewired flexwatt run down the back, a small fan in the bottom to prevent air layering, and wire shelves to hold my egg tubs. I went ahead and added extra insulation to the outside, but it didn't truly need it. More for my own peace of mind than anything.



The premade incubators are nice, but they're so expensive and rarely hold more than a few eggs.

Best of luck.

[Ridley]

Or you can go even cheaper and get ya a foam cooler, a foot or two of flexwatt, and your thermostat. Will work just as good for just a few clutches, it's what I used for my first few years. Wrap the flexwatt around the sides and tape in place, set a dish of water in the bottom, and stack the egg boxes either on top of the water dish or on top of a grate thats over the water dish depending on how big of a cooler you use. Total cost will be about 20$ I also miss the humidity containment my old foam ghetto incubators held.......I rarely had to ever add water to the substrate in my "coolerbators" other than keeping the water dish full. In my fancy big cool kid incubator I have to almost always add some in the last few weeks.

[AMPearce]

Oops! I meant to say JW, not J&J. Always getting those two confused, especially since each one has sold me a snake. I may just go with JW's, since I have heard good things about them - whereas the Hova-bator seems to have mixed reviews.

Ahh, okay I was confused about you saying J&J since Josh is at outback now. I may try making something like that myself and if you've already got a thermostat it might not be a bad idea to try that. If you screwed up all you really would have put into it would be the cost of the flexwatt. Either way good luck!! Just out of curiousity how many clutches are you expecting?

[Danounet]

Or you can go even cheaper and get ya a foam cooler, a foot or two of flexwatt, and your thermostat. Will work just as good for just a few clutches, it's what I used for my first few years. Wrap the flexwatt around the sides and tape in place, set a dish of water in the bottom, and stack the egg boxes either on top of the water dish or on top of a grate thats over the water dish depending on how big of a cooler you use. Total cost will be about 20$ I also miss the humidity containment my old foam ghetto incubators held.......I rarely had to ever add water to the substrate in my "coolerbators" other than keeping the water dish full. In my fancy big cool kid incubator I have to almost always add some in the last few weeks.

Did you ever have any problems and did all your eggs hatch out ok? if so that seems like a cool idea... Some people (like me) have flexwatt laying around.

[rabernet]

I know that this is out of your target price, but if I were to buy one - this is the one that I would buy:

http://www.nsreptiles.com/incubator.html

Right now, this is what I use:





My first season I used these 12 quart tubs:


Now I use six quart tubs and can get 8 in there at a time.

[FIREball]

Natures Spirit