professional incubator

Hi everybody :)
Lets talk about incubators for ball python :gj:
I would like to know which is the best incubator for ball pythons also where I can buy it.
Thanks a lot :taz::D

Well a lot of breeders here make their own incubators (and have done well with them) at a fraction of the cost of buying one.

If I want to buy a professional one and not make one, for ball python eggs, how much does one cost? And who sells them?

They are around $500 - $550 + shipping for a small 16"x13"x10.75". I do not know the price for a larger one, but assume that it would be much more expensive. I built one that is huge. It cost me less than $75, and works great. I highly suggest going this route. Save your money, and spend it on more snakes...

yeppers

Tell ya what.... If you insist on buying and not building, I will make you a great one for $500! (just know ahead of time that it will be made out of a 120qt cooler, and the parts will cost me about 70 bucks... It does take about 2 hours to build though....)

lmao :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

Tell ya what.... If you insist on buying and not building, I will make you a great one for $500! (just know ahead of time that it will be made out of a 120qt cooler, and the parts will cost me about 70 bucks... It does take about 2 hours to build though....)

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Such a business scheuster....man...businessman. :)

Seriously though, save yourself the money and build one, it will be way cheaper and probably take you just a couple of hours. Consider it making 200 bucks an hour while you work on it.

If you decide to get a pro built one anyway, I think Nature's Spirit has some.

woah serious??

what about these?
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=22&de=660118

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=68&de=593783

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Originally Posted by t-Roy

woah serious??

what about these?
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=22&de=660118

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=68&de=593783

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I have never used those. I don't know if I would trust the heating elements they use. I would rather go with flexwatt and a digital thermostat (Herpstat Pro).

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

Tell ya what.... If you insist on buying and not building, I will make you a great one for $500! (just know ahead of time that it will be made out of a 120qt cooler, and the parts will cost me about 70 bucks... It does take about 2 hours to build though....)

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I don't insist on anything. Im saying IF as an example to learn the true answer to this threads question. Im not rich like that YET. Even if I am I'd rather make my own with that price and give the money to the poor.

My address is.........pm me I'll give it to ya lol

for a smaller incubator i lke the natures spirt. http://www.nsreptiles.com/incubator.html

these are also pretty nice but somewhat costly: http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=66&de=658862

both those links show nice incubators, but that second link.. that guy should really create a web site showing off his work, cause that incubator looks nice. yeah a steep price, but still a nice looking product.

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Originally Posted by nixer

for a smaller incubator i lke the natures spirt. http://www.nsreptiles.com/incubator.html

these are also pretty nice but somewhat costly: http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=66&de=658862

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Took someone til the second page to post the link to the Nature's Spirt incubator:O I would have thought it would have been in like the first 3 posts.

I've always been unadvised to use Hovbators. Heard a lot of people lose eggs, including some friends of mine. The Natures Spirit incubator is probably the best one you could buy that looks nice. Unless you like coolers sitting in your room.

Thanks everybody for the quick answers:gj:
About the nsreptiles incubator,somebody has got it,opinions?
About built incubator,it's easy?What I need to built it?there is some guide in the web.
Somebody knows which incubator the professional breeders use?
Thank a lot friends:salute:

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Originally Posted by antti

Thanks everybody for the quick answers:gj:
About the nsreptiles incubator,somebody has got it,opinions?
About built incubator,it's easy?What I need to built it?there is some guide in the web.
Somebody knows which incubator the professional breeders use?
Thank a lot friends:salute:

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Yes, it is easy to build them. Here is a link: http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/incubator.shtml

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Originally Posted by RKO

I've always been unadvised to use Hovbators. Heard a lot of people lose eggs, including some friends of mine. The Natures Spirit incubator is probably the best one you could buy that looks nice. Unless you like coolers sitting in your room.

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No offense to your friends, but it's probably because they didn't know how to use it. Many many years ago, when I was a kid in high school, I bred burms. I always used a Hovabator with a modified bottom.....I just used a large fish shipping styro. I incubated 57 burmese eggs in one Hovabator with 100% hatch.

You may not remember him, but I also worked for Kevin Bryant Reptiles right out of high school. He had an elaborate $5k incubator built that had about a 40% hatch rate. I advised him to switch to Hovabators with modified bottoms and that year, I produced 45 clutches of Burm, Sri Lanka, Indian, and Blood pythons......all with 100% hatch.....not to mention 5 clutches of Macklots, about 10 clutches of Spotted and Children's, and more. I've even incubated chondros in mine on a couple occasions.

They key to using a Hovabator is having solid room temps. Any fluctuation in your ambient room temps will cause a fluctuation in the incubator due to the wafer thermostat. The best way to use them is to run the wafer nearly wide open and use a separate thermostat to set the temps. I did this with a $35 Penn thermostat from Granger Supply. The heating elements are actually quite nice. I've had Hovabators around for 18 years that still work quite well. The key is knowing how to use them and set the eggs up.

I'm sure it does work well if you tweak the heck out of it and find some place in your house with stable temps. But that's not very likely. My room alone is high 60˚ in the day and low 50˚ at night. Even with the thermostat set at 72˚.

One of my buddies used a method very similar to yours and lost 6 out of 18 eggs (two clutches). Not too bad, but not too great either. Then again, maybe his room was too hot. Every time I was there I was sweating.

I just don't think your incubator should require you to do too much work, but that may just be me. Hovabators were designed for the use of fowl/poultry eggs. To me, that's what they should be used for. If someone, such as yourself, has great success with them then more power to ya.

Here is what I use: http://www.labextreme.com/detail.cfm?autonumber=45185
$900 is a damn good price since I've seen others in the past sell for $7k.

A buddy of mine has a LARGE incubator he got from a zoo. It could seriously fit a person in it. It's about 4' high, 4' wide, and like 4' deep. It was used for ostrich eggs.

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Originally Posted by panthercz

Here is what I use: http://www.labextreme.com/detail.cfm?autonumber=45185
$900 is a damn good price since I've seen others in the past sell for $7k.

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I would not recomend this product at all. In fact I would recomend the mods give panther infraction points for suggesting it....


The darn thing does not have windows! I have read in several places that having an incubator without windows can cause a BP.net member to swallow their own tounges!!!!


Yeah, it isn't a piece of artwork, but I must admit, my cooler incubator really does not look that bad...

Functionally it can't be beat. It is capable of holding 8 egg boxes, and trust me, with the water bottles 2 circulation fans, and supperior insulation of a cooler, every single inch of all egg boxes are the same exact temperature.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...a/DSC01045.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...a/DSC01041.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...a/DSC01042.jpg

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

I would not recomend this product at all. In fact I would recomend the mods give panther infraction points for suggesting it....


The darn thing does not have windows! I have read in several places that having an incubator without windows can cause a BP.net member to swallow their own tounges!!!!

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Uhhhhhhhhhh....It does have windows if you knew anything about the product. The metal door opens and behind it is a full glass locking window for easy viewing.

Here is a company that makes good incubators ,

http://www.aveyincubator.com/reptile_pages.htm

I have the ARTI which i use for beardie eggs, My Ball Python eggs are incubated in a home made coke fridge.

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Originally Posted by panthercz

Uhhhhhhhhhh....It does have windows if you knew anything about the product. The metal door opens and behind it is a full glass locking window for easy viewing.

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Well that's pretty neat. I didn't even notice them.

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Originally Posted by panthercz

Uhhhhhhhhhh....It does have windows if you knew anything about the product. The metal door opens and behind it is a full glass locking window for easy viewing.

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LOL, oh, sorry then! was going only by the picture you provided... never saw one in person! That is still an aweful lot of money for something that can be built for under $100... and that is including paying yourself $15 an hour for putting it together!

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Originally Posted by panthercz

Uhhhhhhhhhh....It does have windows if you knew anything about the product. The metal door opens and behind it is a full glass locking window for easy viewing.

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Plus the door is heated, the entire thing has a water jacket for quick stabilization and has tons of alarms. They are awesome.

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

LOL, oh, sorry then! was going only by the picture you provided... never saw one in person! That is still an aweful lot of money for something that can be built for under $100... and that is including paying yourself $15 an hour for putting it together!

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Yeah if you've never seen one then you'd never know. Personally I think they are not the best for large amounts of BP eggs, but was just showing what I use. They aren't geared for the reptile world, they are laboratory incubators and are very precise. I got mine in a as part of a package deal about 5 years ago. Otherwise I wouldn't have just gone out and bought one.
Here some pics of mine:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...G_0609copy.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...G_0610copy.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...G_0611copy.jpg

Here is what I use $50 + heating + thermostat. Holds about 18 clutches.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...s/IMG_1058.jpg

The "professional" ones are nice but oh so expensive!

http://www.habitatsystemsltd.com/

Look here under incubators. Not cheap, but I do know of a few people that use them and they seam to work for them. I use an old upright freezer like others on here. It can hold 8 12 qt tubs. It does not hold a large number of clutches, but works great for me. I bought a Helix and the heat tape. The freezer I got for 5.00 or maybe even free. Cant remember. Build one save a bunch of money. As long as it works and gets the job done who cares what it looks like.

I set up a old fridge flexwatt, fan ,helix done.

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Originally Posted by ama1997

http://www.habitatsystemsltd.com/

Look here under incubators. Not cheap, but I do know of a few people that use them and they seam to work for them. I use an old upright freezer like others on here. It can hold 8 12 qt tubs. It does not hold a large number of clutches, but works great for me. I bought a Helix and the heat tape. The freezer I got for 5.00 or maybe even free. Cant remember. Build one save a bunch of money. As long as it works and gets the job done who cares what it looks like.

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Seen those at the Tinley Park show the past couple of years.

They're very nice, but too pricey.