Hey all! So, my next venture is going to be incubating eggs, as such, id rather get the supplies before I need them than after the fact. I know there are a ton of DIY ways to make an incubator, but sometimes im pretty handy-incappable, so id prefer to buy a product that will do the job out of the box.
Do any of you guys use commercial incubators? And if so what brands are good and what should be avoided? Thank you in advance!
I generally see Nature’s spirit and C serpents at the top of the recommendation lists.
Incubators don’t need to be super complicated. Some are as simple as getting a cooler, filling it part way with water and tossing an aquarium heater in.
I mean, i suppose that would handle heat and give lots of humidity, i just dont like taking chances haha
Natures spirit is the best one in my opinion (based on what I’ve read about it), but they are expensive. A DIY incubator is the best choice in my opinion and they can usually be built for about $10 before the thermostat. I use the “Farm Incubators Still Air Incubator model 2100” and it works great. It’s a simple design so I don’t think it’s likely to fail, it was given to me by a pretty large leopard gecko breeder and he said that he had hatched hundreds of leos in it and it worked great.
I have couple of these as secondary incubators and they work great in my opinion.
I have a CSerpents incubator, first year I’m using it but so far so good.
I used a homemade incubator out of a drink fridge before as well, it did the job decently. I just put heat tape in the back, and wired the plug and probe through the drain hole in the bottom.
Worked fine until the thermostat I had for it quit working when I was trying to use it to incubate gecko eggs 
so if I use it again I’ll need to get a new thermostat for it. I’ll probably get a proportional one like what the CSerpents one is using, since an on/off one isn’t ideal for incubating eggs.
Just had my second clutch laid today so slowly filling it up, haha!
Most people will either recommend Cserpents or diy incubator. Personally I went with Cserpents because I didn’t want to mess around and potentially screw up my incubator (cause it’d happen - I know me). If you don’t want to mess with anything and want a pretty solid build - go Cserpents.
Seems to be the general consensus, so i think thats the route im gonna take!
Good deal! Mine is the smallest one they offer, so I’ll probably have to upgrade next season (or get a thermostat for my DIY incubator, most likely what I’ll do)
Some would argue (and likely be right) that what you did is the smarter way in terms of electrical cost, plus by the time you need the big one, the option for extra room (i.e. the spare small one) wouldnt be a bad thing either.
They would probably be right, i only went big right away for space reasons. I cant fit 2 yet, so upgrading would be difficult haha. Figured just get the 1 and call it a day xD
Yeah, I also wasn’t sure how fast my collection would be growing — I should have maybe…16? Total females ready to breed next season if they all hit weight and are good body condition by the time I start pairings for the 2023 season.
Provided I don’t add any more subadult or adult females to the collection by that time.
I know not all will go since some of my girls seem to prefer laying only every other year, and I’ll be having 6 lay this year, but that’s still a lot of potential clutches and I think the incubator I got will only hold 8 tubs without the shelves in there
I ordered the 36" from C Serpents. LOTS of people kept telling me its not rocket science to build an incubator. While that’s cool and all I don’t feel comfortable doing it yet and don’t want to screw this up for my first go around. Maybe down the road I might attempt it but for now I got one coming in the mail ready out of the box with a thermostat I don’t have to hunt around for. Now my hardest decision just has to be which tubs to buy for it lol.
I thought the same thing with the 48". Im on my second season and will be getting the 60" at the end
My goodness, I need to start looking into these things as I might get Olives and Children’s pythons soon ( olives are sooner though lol)
Im only gonna have 2 breedable females this year haha, so its a we bit overkill xD, but space efficiency is a must since my home is my facility, so id rather get the 60 now than have to find space for a second later.
Congrats on the incubator investment, it will serve you well and you wont need to expand for a very long time (if ever depending on how large your collection grows!).
I’m currently using a Nature’s Spirit that I managed to pickup locally as part of a big package deal for $200, got lucky. When it’s time to expand I’ll be picking up a Cserpents.
I have seen at least one experienced breeder invest into the large version and had issues. He sold it and decided to use multiple of the smaller versions. I would recommend getting some temperature sensors, like sensorpush, and monitoring different areas of the incubator for a period of time to see what kind of temperature spread there is. The experienced breeder I mentioned didn’t do this and chalked up his issues to the only equipment variable that was changed.
Fair. The bright side is when starting small, if there is a variable, it wont overly matter since the only place i need stable is the small section with eggs, but when i need to fill it, i will definitely need stable temps throughout, so ill likely do some testing when i have it in operarion to see how reliable it will be for the future
