Russian Eggs

[Stenty]

My female just laid 4 eggs. She laid 3 last year, but they weren't fertile. I have them in a Hovabator at 88 degrees. I put them in containers with equal parts water and vermiculite. One egg has a hairline crack. The humidity may be a little high; it's around 90 percent. Last year, I had a difficult time keeping the temperature constant, so I added more water containers this time to see if it would help. Advice would be gratefully received as I really want to do this right.

Linda

 

[dmmj]

Is there a male in the picture?

 

[Stenty]

Yes, I also have a male. I keep them separated most of the time, but they are together for short periods.

 

[tyrs4u]

Instructions on the Hovabator would be awesome guys...

 

[Tom]

When you say equal parts water and vermiculite do you mean by weight or volume? In other words did you do a cup of water and a cup of vermiculite, or did you do 300 grams of water and 300 grams of vermiculite? Huge difference here... If you did it by volume that would be way to wet and it would explain the excess humidity and the hairline crack. If this is the case then carefully redo your ratio of one : one by by WEIGHT, and then carefully remove the eggs from the wet substrate, without turning them, and place them into the new substrate.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

My best tip would be to ditch the hovabator. I've learned that lesson the hard way many times when I first started out. But if yours is staying at the right temp then congrats!

 

[Stenty]

I weighed the vermiculite and water using a kitchen scale. I think it's so humid because I put too much water in the bottom of the Hovabator. The crack was already there when I uncovered the eggs after she laid them. It's the egg that was on top of the pile.

What's the best brand of incubator?

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[GBtortoises]

My female just laid 4 eggs. She laid 3 last year, but they weren't fertile. I have them in a Hovabator at 88 degrees. I put them in containers with equal parts water and vermiculite. One egg has a hairline crack. The humidity may be a little high; it's around 90 percent. Last year, I had a difficult time keeping the temperature constant, so I added more water containers this time to see if it would help. Advice would be gratefully received as I really want to do this right.

Linda

It may be the humdity or the moisture contact with the egg that is causing it to take on water and swell. Russian tortoise eggs do better well incubated in a medium that has barely any moisture but in an atmosphere that is higher in ambient humidity. 90% is much too much. They do best is barely moistened vermiculite or perlite, 1/2 to 3/4 buried with a seperate container of water to provide humidity within the incubator. I use styrofoam chicken egg incubators with a small (margarine tub) container full of water with a sponge sticking out of it to act as a wick. At 87-89 degrees this will provide an ambient humidity of 65-75% which works well for Russian and other Northern Testudo species. Keep in mind that the room that the incubator is placed in will often affect what happens inside the incubator. If the room is extremely dry the incubator will have a more difficult time maintaining the humidity within it. The same goes for temperatures. An incubatore works best if it is set up in an area where the temperatue and humidity remain consistent. In the case of temperature the room should be cooler than inside the incubator. With humidity the room should be close or slightly less than that inside the incubator.

 

[jwhite]

I agree with what GB has said. I used to try an incubate the way you are have yours set up and I never had a successful hatch. I switched things around to way GB has told you and now I have about a 80% hatch rate. I keep my incubater in the basement and once I have my temp set I never mess with it again except to open it when I notice that the water tub is getting low.

 

[Stenty]

It may be the humdity or the moisture contact with the egg that is causing it to take on water and swell. Russian tortoise eggs do better well incubated in a medium that has barely any moisture but in an atmosphere that is higher in ambient humidity. 90% is much too much. They do best is barely moistened vermiculite or perlite, 1/2 to 3/4 buried with a seperate container of water to provide humidity within the incubator. I use styrofoam chicken egg incubators with a small (margarine tub) container full of water with a sponge sticking out of it to act as a wick. At 87-89 degrees this will provide an ambient humidity of 65-75% which works well for Russian and other Northern Testudo species. Keep in mind that the room that the incubator is placed in will often affect what happens inside the incubator. If the room is extremely dry the incubator will have a more difficult time maintaining the humidity within it. The same goes for temperatures. An incubatore works best if it is set up in an area where the temperatue and humidity remain consistent. In the case of temperature the room should be cooler than inside the incubator. With humidity the room should be close or slightly less than that inside the incubator.

I'll put them in drier vermiculite. Do you put lids on the containers that hold the eggs?

 

[jwhite]

I don't use lids on my containers maybe some others do.

 

[tyrs4u]

My best tip would be to ditch the hovabator. I've learned that lesson the hard way many times when I first started out. But if yours is staying at the right temp then congrats!

I really wanted...

But they are out with no eta on the back order from the company.

So I have an Hova but I'm purchasing Zoo Med Reptibator - Digital Reptile Incubator in the mean time; till they get the nicer one. But if you have a suggestion? I'm all Ears/Eyes...

 

[WoofWolf]

Just to share what's worked for me... I use a Hovabator D-2362-N, and have had great success with it. (Per some of the comments here, maybe I've just been lucky: Some folks seem not to be Hovabator-centric.) I place my Russians' eggs in a small plastic container (a large margarine tub) on a bed of just-barely-moistened vermiculite about 1.5" deep. My incubator has a tiny circulating fan in its top. I don't place the eggs directly under the fan, as I don't want to dry them out. Into the Hovabator, I also place 2 small bowls of water, and I pour a cup or so in the plastic incubator liner/bottom tray. Set temperature at 31.6 c (always try to warm up/regulate your incubator for a couple of days before eggs are laid), and leave 'em alone -- checking every few days to be sure that the bowls still have water in them. Doing it this way, humidity in the incubator tends to stay within a couple of points of 60%. Twice in a row now, all eggs have hatched, on average at about 8 weeks & 6 days. Soon as the babies emerge and start singing "Hello Ma' Baby", I take them out of the vermiculate (so that they can't ingest any) and place them in a separate container in the incubator, on a bed of very damp paper towels. (Keep the towels damp: Don't let them dry out !) I let the critters stay in the incubator for a couple more days to let their remaining egg sacs start disappearing, then move them out to a warm, well-lighted place. All hatchlings -- so far -- have ended up happy and healthy.
I'd be interested to hear suggestions on tweaking this system. All I can tell you is that so far it's worked great for me.
Best of luck to you and to the little people.

 

[tyrs4u]

WolfWold, thank you. You rock. Printed and on my Hova... Do you know of a site that sells containers with lids? Im sure someone out there sells them...

 

[JoeImhof]

I just hatched my first baby last week from the hovibator.

Humidity of 90% probably is too high. Too much moisture is what usually cause eggs to crack. My first eggs year and a half back cracked, but I learned from it.

When you wet the vermiculite, it is same WEIGHT of water. Thats important. You may think at first, this CANNOT be right, its such a SMALL amount of water. But it is.

When you look at various people incubating, they have different methods, even in the hovibator, but here is what I just did, and it worked.

Wet the vermiculite like I indicated above. Its not much water. I put the vermiculite in a container that is probably 1/4 or slight less, the size of the entire hovibator. Bury the eggs about half way.

Put a thermometer and hydrometer (spelled wrong sorry) ON TOP of the vermiculite near the eggs ( you will get different temps if you put in below on grates).

I did NOT cover the inner container. Rather, if the humidity of the whole hovibator is in the correct range, then so will the eggs be. Prior, covering the small container had confused me, and made it more difficult to measure and adjust temps.

Add containers of water in the hovibator, and bring the humidity up to 65-75%. Keep it in this range. If the containers dont keep the humidity high enough, you can add another container, if hovibator fills with containers, pour a LITTLE bit of water into the bottom of the hovibator itself, thru the grating, as there is a water basin there as well. When I say a little, I mean like a shot glass full at most. See what the humidity goes to then.

As for the temps, its VERY important that the hovibator is in a room with a more or less constant temp. If your room is 85 degrees in day and falls to 65 at night, your hovibator temp will vary widely.

I have to go, will add more info later.

 

[JoeImhof]

Ah, I was saying........

So thats important to note. When the room temp changes by a significant degree, so will the temp inside hovibator.

I'd guess a few 4 or so degrees change in room temp, will affect hovibator by about 1 degree, but thats just a rough estimate.
I check the temp in my hovibator every day or two. It may aslo drift slightly over time. I dont think its a big deal if the temp varies 1-2 degrees F over time, but I'd try to make it as little as possible.

As the egg got very close to hatching, last 10 days or so, I gradually upped the humidity to 75-80%, as I had read that might help them hatch better. Dont know if it mattered, but.

Anyhow, this all worked for me with the basic hovibator with picture window, no fan.

The only drawback in my mind to the hovibator was the temperature drift, but all seemed to work out.

Good luck!

 

[WoofWolf]

You're most welcome. Hope there's some info you'll find useful.

As an aside, I bury the eggs about 1/3 in the very-slightly-moist vermiculite. I don't cover the container they're in -- I'm simply careful not to place the container under the Hovabator's little fan.

I have a new, single, HUGE egg in the incubator now. My old, old girl, Boris (yes, Boris) laid it, along with parts of shell from another egg which didn't make it out intact. First time she's ever laid, and she's got to be about 15 now. My fingers are crossed.

Take care, good luck, and happy torting.