Hoping for better luck this year

[wildak]

Did your new incubator show up yet ? I was wondering if both of your tortoises lay, how many eggs do you usually end up with ? I hear Impressa can lay 40 eggs and they are tiny compared to Emys. If you put the eggs in the deli containers like they had on that video and stacked them would you be able to fit them all in that incubator?

I really like building them, I get pretty creative. I wished I lived a bit closer I would whip one or 2 out for you. But shipping from Alaska would be killer for a bigger one.

If you talk to a appliance repair place or a commercial refriderator repair man you can get a short or tall glass door ones for free since they have to pay to throw them away they're happy to give them away and they are already dischareged of gas so you can cut all the junk out of them to make them nice and light. Flexwatt heat tape $20-$30, Herpistat $99-$200, secondary temp gauge and humidity gauge $30. That's all it takes for a basic set up. Adding computer fans, fogger and humistat would be a couple hundred more. But I have fun with it.

I also just bought a control from Skylink that will call several phone numbers if the temp. increases or decreases so you know if the power goes out when your not home. I still need to get some other pieces for it. But I will have this set up for the tortoises also for if my furnace or power goes out my animals would'nt freeze to death when I'm away from home.

So now I just need FERTILE eggs. Does'nt matter how fancy I make things if they're not fertile.
Keep us updated and good luck.

Bryan

 

[Yvonne G]

No, I haven't received it yet.

I get around 30, 35 eggs from each girl and they look exactly like ping pong balls...same size and shape.

If I can't make them all fit into my new incubator, I can always use one of the Little Giants.

 

[tortadise]

Yvonne,
I read that your incubating at 84. That's very high, at least with my experience. I enclose them in tubs with very damp vermiculite burried about half to three quarters down. Once a week I open the tub lids (even though I drilled holes in the sides and lid). Usually 77-79 for males and 79-83 for females. I try and keep it right at 80. I have found that really wet vermiculite and higher temperatures is the culprit of the mold and gnats. Hope everything works out with the new incubator. If you would like some photos of my process is be glad to share.

 

[Yvonne G]

GBTortoises expressed concern on a different thread about my new incubator, and I'm thinking his concerns might be justified. I set up my new incubator, placed two tubs of water on the shelves with a thermometer in them, filled the water tray on the bottom and set the temperature for 83F degrees. Since Manouria eggs do better at a cooler temp than other tortoise eggs, I felt 83F is a good temp for females. Problem is, every time I walk by the incubator, the temperature indicator shows 80F or 81F. If I stand there and watch it (its like watching grass grow, and gets very boring after a few minutes) the fan comes on, the temp very slowly climbs to 81, then 30 seconds 82, then more waiting and 83 then the fan turns off, and just as I'm ready to walk away...what? 84F....what the heck. It stays 84F longer than I have patience to watch it, and the next time I walk by its 80F again. The temperature range suggested by Manouria breeders is 76F to 85F, so the variance is ok, but I'm wondering if the up and down is healthy for the eggs. Buried in the earth, I'm sure the temp stays pretty constant. So IF I get any eggs I'm going to put half in the new incubator and half at a lower temp than my usual (86F) in one of the Little Giants.

 

[JacksonR]

Don't put all your eggs in one basket....or incubator.

 

[wildak]

Wow, that's no good if it varies that much. Did you call the company ?

You can get a digital thermometer and humidistat with probes for $16.99. I never trust just one. This is the secondary one I have http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...a-digital-thermometer--hygrometer-with-probe/

---

Don't make me come down there....... I'll melt.

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, another big disappointment. Medea was in the shed tonight when I went around to close up and turn off lights. For the past, what...18 to 20 days she's been moving substrate into the nest area and every night she has parked on top of the nest. But tonight she was in the shed. So I dismantled the nest, scoop by scoop and there's nothing in it but very large grubs.

 

[Yvonne G]

The weather here has been really warm, day and night, and Medea started working on her nest again a couple days ago. I've taken a video and it is in REAL time, not slow motion. This is now they move. SLOW.




They push like that for a bit with their front legs, then they move forward a bit and push it back more with the back legs. When she first started, way back at the beginning of this thread, most of what she was pushing was leaves and plant debris. But in the intervening weeks, it has composted into mostly dirt. Its interesting to note that she occasionally goes further back in the rain forest and digs and pushes in a bush, breaking off leaves and branches to add to her "substrate."

 

[tortadise]

My female is doing exactly the same thing. Been making me crazy past month. Nesting not nesting "fake" guarding and then back to nesting. And of course one of the males has to help too I wish she would lay them already.

 

[dmmj]

They are probably wondering why we silly humans are so interested in their normal behaviors.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

What an interesting tortoise.

 

[wildak]

Maybe they're just starting a worm farm for snacking.....

How far will they bring leaves and dirt from if there's not enough near by ?

 

[Yvonne G]

The far wall of her pen is appx. 35 feet away. She goes all the way to that fence. I'll take a picture tomorrow so you can see what she's done.

 

[Yvonne G]

Evidently there weren't enough leaves on the nest to her liking, so she's over there in the cast iron plant (Aspidistra), tearing it up. You can see a trail of leaves leading from where she is, over towards the nest, which is in the foreground, to the left, out of the picture.

 

[wildak]

LOL holy crap. That's amazing. I figured in their native habitat they wouldn't have to drag leaves and moss to far to build a big mound but it's interesting to see they will adapt to make sure they have the perfect nest.

I'm starting to think Manouria are the smartest turtle/tortoises. I used to think American Wood Turtle was but after having Impressa for several years I have change my opinion.

I have a cb female that I swear is a reincarnated monk, it's almost erie the way she walks up and stares into my eyes or sits on top of her stump and watches other tortoises in other enclosures. Then her bf is like a reincarnated Mo from the three stooges, he just rams into her when he wants all the food or a certain hide and she calmly walks away.

I can't wait until they start building nests. I need to build some predator proof outdoor enclosures this summer.

Did you ever get your new incubator figured out ? If you have to you can still get a heat tape and thermistat and put it in the unit and just unplug the original one.
Some people just use a big walmart cooler with the heat tape and thermistat. They seal tight, are well insulated and super cheap to build.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, I'm beginning to think this new incubator was a big waste of money. Maybe it will be different with eggs in it, but for now, I'm having a real hard time making it keep a steady temperature. Every time I walk by it says something different. I guess its good that I'm having time to make the adjustments. I have two thermometers inside on each shelf, and I am watching those too. If it says 84 on the outside reading, it usually says 80 or 82 inside.

 

[yagyujubei]

OK< here goes. Your new incubator really wasn't designed to be an incubator at all. It's warmer/cooler designed for food. I have one that I use for box turtles, and it works great, because the cooling aspect helps if the ambient room temp is above 80 degrees. I find that mine says 84 to get about 80 inside.Have you ever given a clutch of eggs to someone else to incubate? Did they have better sucess than you. Personally, I think that your hovabators are irreversably contaminated. I don't think it's possible to sanitize one effectively. You need to discard bad eggs right away. If you learn to candle them properly, it's quite easy. The flies are attracted to the rotting eggs. The air (that the eggs breathe) is filled with methane, bacteria, and fungus spores. Not really the environment I would recommend.

 

[Baoh]

I have a similar incubator (two, actually) and it works perfectly well for me as long as I subtract 3 from the setting value when in my basement. To reach 80F, I set it at 83F. To reach 89F, I set it to 92F. This will depend upon the room and the individual unit. When I used a spare bedroom in my old home, the difference was 2F instead of 3F. There are slightly different temperatures at different levels within the incubator, with higher temperatures (obviously) at the top and lower temperatures at the bottom. I use a decent digital thermometer to monitor any level where eggs have been placed. They have worked well for me with multiple species of tortoises, multiple species of turtles, hundreds of leopard geckos over the past few years, and more. I hope everything works out for you with your eggs. Unless I find an adult or subadult female sometime this year, I will probably sell my male and discontinue my Mep project.

 

[Yvonne G]

Thanks for your candor, Dennis. I'm tending to agree with you. And at $35 apiece, after having them for over 10 years, its really no big loss to toss them and start over.

 

[wildak]

Try putting a gallon jug of water in the incubator and see if it helps maintain temps better. If it's empty the temps will be erratic.