Incubation

So far all incubation systems for reptiles ive seen are like 500 dollars, anyone know a cheaper one? What do yall think about letting the mother do her thing. I read one guy that said somewhere, if you leave it up to the mother your basically insuring you wont hatch a egg, which makes me wonder where are all the incubators in the wild????????

I made my incubator out of a free old fridge. Louis Kirkland let one of his girls incubate her eggs this year and they did just fine.

I would recommend building one from an old fridge (i used a glass front coke fridge myself). Old fridges are cheap (or free) and all you will need is a thermostat, heat tape and small fan. Should cost under $200, with the thermostat being the most expensive part.

From what I have read maternal incubation works however there may not be a 100% hatch rate. I prefer to play it safe and incubate.

You can just use a cooler, flexxwatt, computer fan and a themostat. I have a coke fridge but a cooler is a little easier to come by.

I use this

I probably have a little less than $200 invested in it

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p.../Incubator.jpg

I will still use it this season and after that I need to find something bigger!

I too use an old upright freezer that I added some heat tape, a few PC fans, and a Helix.
It holds 8 12 qt tubs. That's more than big enough for me right now. Total cost for me was under 200.00. But I got my freezer for free. Some places that sell fridges and all that. When they sell a fridge and deliver it. They take away the old one for free or a small fee. Then then have to pay to get rid of them. Most places around here will be more than happy to give them away. So they dont have to pay to get rid of them. The cooler type incubators work great too, from what ive herd. But if you only have a few clutches a year. But plan on growing. You might be better off building something bigger from the start. You spend 200.00 and build a cooler incubator. Then 2 years from now you have to build another because you are breeding more. Something to think about.

Here is a pic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/100_8325.jpg