Good Idea or not???

Okay, I have been contemplating breeding for a looooooonngg time. Been doing a little reading here and there on both ball pythons and leopard geckos (not sure which I want to start with). Although I am no where near ready to breed either yet. I was wondering as part of my researching breeding if it would be a good thing to buy an incubator and all the necessities for it and set it up and do a test run? Start with ball pythons, use the incubator for about 55 days and see how it all goes so I can get it down before I start breeding. I don't want to set up an incubator just a month before I am expecting eggs and run into problems and not know how to fix them. Good Idea or bad investment?

as with anything... it's better to get the equipment up and running smoothly before you need it but... when are you talking about breeding? in a year... 3 years... cause getting an incubator now... for a year or so later... would IMO be a waste of money at this point.

just my 2 cents worth

Since you'll need the incubator anyway, I can't see that it would be a bad investment. I only ran my incubator about a week to test it, but hey.. if it makes oyu feel better to run it 55 days..
You will have to realize that it can run different humidty with eggs in it. Putting damp substrate as if you have eggs int here might help that.

See I am hoping for next years breeding season, but I am not in any hurry. I am just trying to make sure I am well prepared when the time comes.

I won't rush out and buy one right now, I still have a lot of reading to do. I will buy one a few months before I decide to breed. There is just so much to consider with breeding these animals its overwhelming when you put it all into perspective, I just need to be sure this is something I really want to do.

:sweeet: agreed

At least an incubator is something you could resell, pretty easily, if for some reason things don't work out.
I think a dry-run is definately needed with any incubator, new cage, etc. Better to good up temps then, than when eggs or a snake is at stake!

I was shopping incubators the other day. The local supply doesn't carry Hovobator, but they have a similar setup. As soon as I'm sure I'm getting eggs I'll pick it up and try it out.