Need help making an incubator

[KingKongShlong]

Hi all, I'm brand new to this forum (my first post) and this is my first year breeding ball Pythons. I have two females that are gravid , a Superfly and a Het Clown, and am hoping they may lay soonish (I started the breeding season kinda late). I have several more females that I'm planning on breeding next year so I'll need to make a larger incubator but wasn't really sure what to go with. I've seen plenty of people convert old fridges into incubators which I'd love to do, but I'd really like to have a glass front to the incubator so I can monitor the eggs closely without disturbing them too much (and I can't find any glass front fridges other than really small wine coolers). I've also seen people make their own incubators out of PVC but my local plastic store doesn't carry any pvc, only 1/4" ABS and it's 150$ per 4'x 8' (kinda pricey if I have to put two together for 1/2"). I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas for a larger incubator on a budget (>10 clutches of ball Pythons with hopeful expansion down the road). Any input will be highly appreciated.
Cheers!

[paulh]

Welcome to the ball-python.net forums!

I used to know a couple of guys who made snake cages out of 1/8 inch thick masonite. This is a composition panel that comes in 4x8 foot panels and is much cheaper than plastic. The stuff is too flexable to stand alone, but tacking or gluing it to 1x2 inch wood strips makes it much stiffer.

An incubator would need shelves and insulation. Wal-Mart and other stores sell metal shelf units. And styrofoam could be used as insulation. Though the foam tends to stink from plasicizer for months so it must air out for a long time before the eggs go in. Another possible insulation is half a dozen layers of corrugated cardboard salvaged from the Wal-Mart trash pile. Glass should probably be two panes with an air gap between them.

I've never tried making an incubator this way, so this is just brainstorming. And you are on your own for thermostat, heating and lighting. Good luck.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Old fridge, 5 or 6 feet of 12 inch THG and a good thermostat.
Also a bunch of one gallon milk jugs full of water.
You don't need to check on the often enough to lose too much heat.
Also a bunch of 6 quart tubs that are see through.

[Thom Noble]

Call your local redbull, coke or Pepsi distributor and see if you can buy a broken cooler. Sometimes they will give them away. You will want the gdm 10-12 model. I have two of them and love them!


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