Incubation

[retreat]

Hi everyone,

The question is targeted at breeders that have had success in incubating AFT eggs, with a hatch rate lets say above 75%. Im wondering what is your preffered substrate? Vermiculite, perlite, sand, ground coconut?

I've had difficulties with vermiculite with eggs either collapsing or moulding.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Gecko]

I've used both vermaculite and perilite. Except for one year I've always had 90% or higher hatch rate.

If you loose a lot and your female is in good condition maybe you should try lowering the water content of your mix. Also I'd keep things so that at the coldest part of the night temps don't drop below 81.

 

[LeopardGeckoMom52688]

I am new to this breeding. I was reading this and was curious if someone could possibly give me some hints. I breed leopards but this will be my friend year with AFTS. I was curious on weight, temps to incubate, And his question what kind of substrate!

 

[nike]

vermiculite

 

[nike]

i i take vermiculite

but i heard from a friend that he takes sermis

 

[lytlesnake]

I just opened up the hovabator to put in a pair of freshly laid AFT eggs and found the 4 eggs that were already in there were collapsing. They're in vermiculite. Damn! I think since my house temperature has been pretty cold lately, the hovabator heat wafer has been on a lot, possibly causing the vermiculite in the tupperware to dry out too much. I should have kept them misted every few days I guess. From now on I'll do that.

So I buried the 4 eggs deeper and hopefully they'll re-plump. Or not, we'll see. It's also possible that my male AFT is sterile. Last year all my AFT eggs went bad too, but I chocked that up to undersized first year breeders.

I might invest in that Kemps Juragon incubator, or the Natures Spirit. I don't want my upcoming leo eggs to suffer the same fate.

 

[Nigel4less]

I just opened up the hovabator to put in a pair of freshly laid AFT eggs and found the 4 eggs that were already in there were collapsing. They're in vermiculite. Damn! I think since my house temperature has been pretty cold lately, the hovabator heat wafer has been on a lot, possibly causing the vermiculite in the tupperware to dry out too much. I should have kept them misted every few days I guess. From now on I'll do that.

So I buried the 4 eggs deeper and hopefully they'll re-plump. Or not, we'll see. It's also possible that my male AFT is sterile. Last year all my AFT eggs went bad too, but I chocked that up to undersized first year breeders.

I might invest in that Kemps Juragon incubator, or the Natures Spirit. I don't want my upcoming leo eggs to suffer the same fate.

That probably wouldn't happen if you got a proportional thermostat for your incubator.

 

[lytlesnake]

That probably wouldn't happen if you got a proportional thermostat for your incubator.

Thanks for the advice, but I think my laziness is the problem, not the hovabator. I should have checked the tupperware every few days and made sure I misted it a little. It would probably also be a good idea to put a ziploc bag with some water in there as paulnj does.

As opposed to hooking the hovabator up to a proportional thermostat, I think I'm going to just get a better incubator. If I get the Natures Spirit incubator then I'll be using a proportional thermostat with it. If I get the Kemps it has digital control built in. Not to knock the hovabator, it served me well last year, and I'll probably still use it too. I'd like one of those fancy ones though. I live in the mountains where it gets pretty cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I'm thinking that a plastic or PVC incubator is going to maintain a more stable temperature in these extremes than the styrofoam will.

I do own a bunch of Herpstat ND units, but I use them on my racks, not the hovabator. I've heard of people using the hovabator this way, but I've also heard that you're better off just using the hovabator by itself. In any event, I hope those first 4 eggs plump up again.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

I have all my eggs in the incubator with vermiculite..i ordered some "super-hatch" to try it out..has anyone tried incubating using "super-hatch"?

 

[gixxer3420]

Vermiculite

 

[robin]

vermiculite all the way!

 

[kasvattaja]

Vermiculite:main_thumbsup:

 

[acpart]

Last season was my first with AFT's. I only had a 50% hatch rate, but that was largely because my female kept laying in the wrong place and by the time I found the eggs, they were too far gone. I had the AFT eggs in with the leopard gecko eggs, incubating in perlite. Since I want my leos to be female, I was incubating at 81-82. The AFT eggs took longer to hatch because I think their temp range is a little higher than for leos. THe leos were hatching at 7-8 weeks and the AFT's at 9-10 weeks. They were all female.

I have concerns about the hobovator being able to maintain a temperature in the 80's if the ambient temperature is really low because I don't know how good an insulator styrofoam is. I have switched for this season to a reptipro5000 after 4 good seasons with a hobovator.

Aliza

 

[thegeckoguy23]

super hatch is good from what i hear