Homemade Bearded Dragon Incubator

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Posted by admin | Posted in Bearded Dragon Care | Posted on 26-11-2009

Tags: how to make a homemade bearded dragon incubator

How to setup a homemade incubator?

I usually just let my friend incubate my bearded dragon eggs because I have been so busy lately but being on how many breeding pairs I have now I thought it might be better to get my own incubator set up. I dont want to buy one so if you guys could just give me directions on how to set one up it would be greatly appreciated. No harsh comments please…I can do without.

There are many ways you can incubate Bearded dragon eggs.
1) You buy a large ice chest that has a drain spout hole in the bottom on one side. (this is where you run all your cords) You place a few bricks in the bottom and purchase something like oven grates or go to lowes and buy the grid flourescent light covers. They are plastic so there is no rusting and they are easy to cut to fit. Take a couple of rubbermaid shoe boxes and cut the center out of the lids and glue window screen also found at lowes so when they hatch they can not escape. You plase a bowl of water on the bottom over the top of a undertank reptile heater so the water evaporates and creates high humidity. The heater also creates heat needed for proper incubation. Then you place the bricks in the bottom and your light cover on that so that it is up off the water bowl. Buy yourself a thermostat to hook to the undertank heater so you can regulate temps acuratly (www.lllreptile.com about $30.00) Then you mix up about 1/2 and 1/2 Vermiculite and peat moss or eco earth the vermiculite and peat are available at wal mart for about 2 bucks a bag. Place about two inches of the mix into the shoe boxes and insert your eggs. Lay your shoe boxes on the racks and close the lid. Your temps should be 82 to 85 F and humidity should be around 80 to 90 % If the eggs start shriveling up increase humidity by pouring a little more water into the corner of the shoe box if they start getting really hard to the touch over hydration crack the lid of the cooler a little so moisture can escape. You can find all sorts of plans and ideas on the web do a search for home made incubaters or you can look on www.kingsnake.com and look in the chat forums to see what they say. Or if you have that many breeders you can do what I have done. I cleaned out a closet placed shelves in there placed a 5 gallon bucket of water with a fish tank heater in it set to 85 degrees and placed my eggs in the shoe boxs then on the shelves. The fish tank heater heats the wate for humidity and also heats the air I also have a red lamp in there hooked to a thermostat set to 84 degrees just in case the temp drops. In about 65 days or so you will have hatchlings. Let the hatchlings stay in the tub with the incubating medium for about two days to fully absorb the yolk then move them to the tanks with higher temps similar to what you house the adults at only use no substrate. That way there is no danger of ingestion and impaction. Start out feeding 1/4 inch or 3 week old crickets. Once they are all eating this could take up to 5 days from hatching then it is up to you how long you hold them to ensure health before selling. I hold mine for three weeks from first meal. The cooler method will house about 60 eggs or so depending on cooler size (30 quart) The closet method I housed 400 eggs at one time.
I have also heard of people just setting the eggs in the shoe boxes and then placing them in a warm spot in the house. This may work but with varied hatch times depending on temps and a higher mortality rate. Check www.kingsnake .com or do a search for Mellissa Caplains reptile care sheets they are good sources of info. Good luck to you.

beardie’s hatching