Humidity in egg tubs: how much is okay?

[SquamishSerpents]

Just wondering how much humidity should be visible in the incubating egg-tubs.

this time i measured the vermiculite and water 1:1. 65g verm, 65g water. mixed it up and put in the eggs. i have 5 holes on 2 sides of the egg containers, and 4 holes on each lid. however when i looked in this morning there are still quite large beads of water hanging off the lid and dripping down the sides of the containers.

i guess i'm going to have to take out half the mixture and add more vermiculite.

what ratio do you guys usually use, and how much humidity is too much?

[RichsBallPythons]

No need for air holes. When condensation happens its due to air coming into the tub being colder than the air inside.

If not using the light diffuser then you need 1:1 ratio.

Using Light diffuser you can have it as wet as you want. I never had condensation show up till week till they hatch. If your getting it already with no eggs then its how its setup.

[SquamishSerpents]

do you recommend using light diffuser on top of the vermiculite? i used light diffuser on top of wet perlite this year (couldn't find verm ANYWHERE) which seemed to work okay, but we lost an entire clutch of corn eggs so i decided to switch back to just burying them halfway in vermiculite. not sure it was the incubation that killed the corn eggs, as they looked like crap from the beginning, but i thought better safe than sorry.

the incubation setup we have now is a hovabator (not plugged in) and a strip of flexwatt hooked up to a Herpstat, set at 89 degrees. there is light diffuser on top of the flexwatt, between the egg tubs. i didn't want to rest the tubs directly on the flexwatt; i figured with the diffuser between there might be a bit of forgiveness if the temps do swing a bit.

so i measured the verm/water at a 1:1 ratio and i'm still getting A LOT of humidity, I just peeked in and since i took the lids off there is fog on the windows of the hovabator. i wonder why i'm getting so much humidity?

what do you suggest I do, i REALLLLLLLY want this clutch to do well!

*edit*

just a thought, maybe it's more humid where i live (coastal BC) so the 1:1 ratio is simply too much water?

[RichsBallPythons]

Could be the hovabator isnt air tight and allowing too much cool air into it.


I have always use the diffuser and i use vermiculite/perlite mix. I soak it till theres puddles of water. This way i never have to add water at all. No checking on eggs but once e very 2 weeks.

[SquamishSerpents]

hmm that could be it, the hovabator was given to us by somebody who used to breed bearded dragons.

what i've done is cover up the air holes i made, took out about half the vermiculite, and added dry vermiculite without adding any more water. it does still clump together loosely, so i'm thinking maybe the vermiculite i have is a little bit wetter than usual. i also closed the window in the room we are incubating in.

if it continues to be a problem i may have to move them to a different container.

we do have a small cooler we could use, but the problem with that is we only have enough flexwatt to cover the bottom of it, and the cooler is not big enough for all 5 eggs to go in one container. we would have to stack 2 glad containers vertically with the flexwatt on the bottom. would that pose any problems? would the bottom container get too warm, or would enough heat rise to the to container to even it out?

[SquamishSerpents]

yikes, i checked the egg tubs just now and the humidity build-up is still quite a lot.

like i said i removed half of the vermiculite & water mixture that i prepared, and replaced it with new, dry vermiculite. so i guess it's not the medium that is the problem; it must be that the hovabator is letting cooler air in.

do you think my cooler idea would work okay? or would there be too much of a temperature variance in the 2 tubs if i stack them (with flexwatt below the bottom layer?)

[RichsBallPythons]

You can go to a walmart and get a nice Igloo Cooler and youll be set. Transfer the heat tape over, thermostat and add some water bottles to stabilize temps.

Check out the pictures to give you idea.

http://www.reptileinsider.com/showthread.php?p=101622

[SnakeGirl3]

How do the eggs look? Are they still nice and white and plump? If so, your humidity may be fine. It's actually recommended that your humidity be around 95%. Just make sure the water is not dripping down onto the eggs; if that becomes a problem, try burying them more with your medium (just don't pack it in tightly around the eggs), as this can help protect them from dripping water.

The water/medium ratio should be 1:1 by weight, not by volume. For the most part, it should clump together when squeezed, but break apart easily. No water should come out when it is squeezed.

[SquamishSerpents]

thanks guys! i am going to see about getting a bigger cooler tomorrow. do you think a Zoo Med UTH would suffice as a heat source? we don't really have a big enough piece of flexwatt if we're going to be heating a big cooler, and since we can't really get it easily in Canada i don't think we'll be able to get any more for awhile.

for now i've just wiped away the lids and sides of the tubs, going to check on them again in the morning.

the eggs were only laid on Saturday, so they still look okay. white and plump, as they should be

and yes, i did measure it by weight; 65 grams of vermiculite and 65 grams of water. i think it was too much water, though, as i guess the coast is more humid.

thanks again for all your help, i will post photos and let you know how they are doing!

[Sarin]

I have a small cooler incubator, with water bottles. I use a light diffuser and soak the vermiculite.

I get a LOT of condensation. In the tubs, even in the roof of the cooler. I cannot get rid of it.

What I did was tilted the incubator by about 1/2". Therefore all the water droplets that are too heavy will fall to one side of the container and rarely touch the eggs. It's only been a couple weeks but my eggs are plump and aren't getting wet at all. May be something to consider.