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I am anticipating my 5th year of breeding but I have a concern about my hobovator maintaining steady temperatures. Here's my set-up at the moment and reason for concern:
hobovator (not with fan)
Big Apple Herp proportional thermostat
bowl of water in the incubator to help regulate temperatures
In the spring and fall, when the ambient temperature is below 80 the incubator is kept on my bureau in my room. In the summer (about June-Oct) it's kept in the basement where it's cooler.
I was having about a 2 degree fluctuation in temperatures initially, even with the prop. thermostat but that seemed to regulate much more when I added the bowl of water. However, I incubated later than I usually do because some acquaintances gave me a pair of eggs to incubate. They were in the incubator from mid Oct. to early Dec. I noticed that the temp fluctuations were back to about 2.5 degrees in spite of my set-up. It's possible this was because of changes in ambient temperature since we'd decrease room temp during the day when we aren't home and turn the heat on at night. Both eggs hatched the second week in Dec. One baby had a mild eyelid deformity, the other had severe eyelid deformities and is probably blind, though she is doing well with regular eye washes and has been adopted by my temporary caregiver.
The question is, did the temp fluctuations cause the eye deformities (I had one other out of 39 with sig. eye deformities during my usual season; I don't know the details of the supplementation for the parents of these latest eggs)? If so, is there anything more I can do to regulate the temperatures?
Aliza
hobovator (not with fan)
Big Apple Herp proportional thermostat
bowl of water in the incubator to help regulate temperatures
In the spring and fall, when the ambient temperature is below 80 the incubator is kept on my bureau in my room. In the summer (about June-Oct) it's kept in the basement where it's cooler.
I was having about a 2 degree fluctuation in temperatures initially, even with the prop. thermostat but that seemed to regulate much more when I added the bowl of water. However, I incubated later than I usually do because some acquaintances gave me a pair of eggs to incubate. They were in the incubator from mid Oct. to early Dec. I noticed that the temp fluctuations were back to about 2.5 degrees in spite of my set-up. It's possible this was because of changes in ambient temperature since we'd decrease room temp during the day when we aren't home and turn the heat on at night. Both eggs hatched the second week in Dec. One baby had a mild eyelid deformity, the other had severe eyelid deformities and is probably blind, though she is doing well with regular eye washes and has been adopted by my temporary caregiver.
The question is, did the temp fluctuations cause the eye deformities (I had one other out of 39 with sig. eye deformities during my usual season; I don't know the details of the supplementation for the parents of these latest eggs)? If so, is there anything more I can do to regulate the temperatures?
Aliza
