Incubation Problems

[SWsarah]

Im having a few problems with my incubation

First my tunisians, a few eggs chalked up blood spots came, now they are all really clear, like they have died.

Then my reds, i put them on perlite as ran out of vermiulite, eggs when laid where heavy and normal. They chalked up. One month on all the insides have disintergrated. All the insides have gathered to the top and really light - dead.

Incubation is in a hovabator
Temp was at 31c then when i got red foots turned it down to 29.5c it does changed between 29-30c

When i pour water in the humidity does jump to 85c , normally kept at 70-80%

When i put the red eggs in the humidity in that tub went to 90% could that have been the cause?

Im getting really frustrated at the amount of eggs im loosing.
Any help would be great.

[Junkyard-of-my-mind]

I too use a Hovabator Sarah, i think they very touch and go, do you use the canal for the water or put the water in a tub.

I do use a hair hygrometer as i find it more precise than a thermometer/hydrometer for the humidity.

So far ive had great success.

Hope all works out for you

[SWsarah]

Yes i have two hair hygrometers also.

Its just weird they chalked up and blood spots could be seen then nothing

[terrypin]

Originally Posted by blondesarah

Im having a few problems with my incubation

First my tunisians, a few eggs chalked up blood spots came, now they are all really clear, like they have died.

Then my reds, i put them on perlite as ran out of vermiulite, eggs when laid where heavy and normal. They chalked up. One month on all the insides have disintergrated. All the insides have gathered to the top and really light - dead.

Incubation is in a hovabator
Temp was at 31c then when i got red foots turned it down to 29.5c it does changed between 29-30c

When i pour water in the humidity does jump to 85c , normally kept at 70-80%

When i put the red eggs in the humidity in that tub went to 90% could that have been the cause?

Im getting really frustrated at the amount of eggs im loosing.
Any help would be great.

hi Sarah i understand how frustrated you feel ,as you know i had problems last year and early this year with my leopard eggs .i believe it is all down too the humidity and is species specific.and since i adjusted everything between my two incubators i have had an excellent year so far.for many years i have been useing a home built incubator for all my eggs and have been really successful with my graeca graeca often with 100% hatch rates yet i know other breeders have struggled .i was incubating lots of hermans eggs every year with very limited success.this year i incubated my hermans at a higher humidity in a hovabator and hatched 19 hatchlings more than i have ever done .i put 2 clutches of eggs from my most prolific female graeca graeca normally 100% hatch rate and all but one started to develop then failed to continue with a couple that did develop just failing to hatch out.i placed my other females eggs in the old incubator because i was running out of space and they hatched 8 from 11.i could write 2 pages on my efforts and conclusions with the incubation of leopard eggs but might leave it for another time.so in conclusion the graeca graeca range 65 to 70% max and the hermans 75 to 85% .im sure a lot of successful breeders will say im wrong but it certainly worked for me this year.now what i dont know is if these humidity levels are specific to the temperature range i choose to incubate at or not.

[SWsarah]

Its a nightmare isnt it Terry ahhggggg

My other red foot Poppy has eggs in her now so will set up the other incubator and pop them in there

[Junkyard-of-my-mind]

It might be worth having a different incubator for the Reds Sarah, you never know, trial and error

[Junkyard-of-my-mind]

Oooops posted at the same time

[SWsarah]

I will get the spare one out tonight!

[fantapants]

i got a second hand freezer from the scrappy for my incubator. i stripped the workings of it and cable tied heating cable on the underneath of the shelves. it works a treat. i had a thermometer and a hygromteter in there when i set it up. i found that putting a small water tub on the very bottom kept the humidity at around 60% but by using a tub that had more or less surface are, it could be increased and decreased accordingly. Also my temps were perfect. zero variation from what i set it to. it cost me £12 for the cable and £20 for the stat. and what a bargain, i have tons of incubation space and have incubated my first ever baby leo and quiet a few eggs for other people too.

[Tortoise Trust]

Just a few comments.

First, most 'hard shelled' chelonian eggs really have a very wide tolerance of ambient humidity. That is not the case in the soft, 'leathery' eggs laid by box turtles, etc. Those are all highly sensitive to humidity/hydric conditions, just like some lizard eggs are.

As a guide, you do not want eggs losing more than about 10-15% of their weight during incubation. If that is happening, then it suggests the incubation humidity may be too low.

Excess humidity can also cause problems, mainly O2 deprivation and upsets to the embryonic ion balance.

The smaller the egg, the more susceptible it will be to the local incubation environment. Large eggs, by virtue of their increased mass and different surface area to volume ratio are less affected.

As a rough guide, I have found Testudo eggs generally do well in the 70-80% RH range and that temporary peaks above that do not seem to do any harm. They can also go as low as 50% RH, at least on a temporary basis. You really have to completely saturate them, essentially "drowing" them to really do damage..

In your case, Sarah, I would elsewhere than humidity as being the problem here. One issue I have with the Hovabators is that they switch on and off completely, causing very wide swings in temperature continuously. If you use a really sensitive thermometer you can see this. It is not natural, as in the ground, temperarture swings are much, much slower.

I highly recommend using an incubator with a pulse-proportional thermostat (you can, in fact, upgrade a Hovabator to use one). This will avoid the sharp swings of a mechanical on-off stat. That could well be a factor in the problems you report.

I'd also incubate eggs from Redfoots, etc., separately. They really do like 85-90% RH continuously.

Andy Highfield
www.tortoisetrust.org