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When we got our Blue Tegu's together and were expecting eggs I called Bobby and asked how to use a Hobivator to incubate the eggs. He said not to use that piece of junk and I could build a much better one using a Coleman cooler, some plastic shoe boxes, (2) 25W bulbs and a thermostat.
We found an Igloo Polar 120 Qt cooler (Wal-Mart - about $80) that just fit (4) Sterlite shoe box size tubs (don't remember the size). I had an old 2 bulb light fixture and a couple of 25W blue "party" bulbs (Wal-Mart - less than $3 each), a ZooMed 500R thermostat and an Accu-Rite digital indoor/outdoor thermometer/humidity meter (Wal-Mart about $11). The hardest thing to find was the Perlite and Vermiculite, all the Perlite we found had fertilizer in them. I finally found it at a local Feed store (Shultz brand). A small 8 Qt bag of each is more than enough to use with (4) bins.
I used Bobby's "Incubation and Hatching" Sticky, except the Perlite/Vermiculite/Water should be measured by weight, not volume. http://www.tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181
I cut the wires for the lights, inserted them with the thermostat probe into a hole in the top of the cooler, and reconnected them, paying close attention to polarity of the wires, and taping them securely.
I taped the thermostat probe to the bottom of the cooler between the 2 middle bins. The thermometer probe in in the substrate in one of the bins.
Close the top and adjust the thermostat until the "outside" remote probe (thermometer) reads about 89 degrees consistently. It might take a few hours for it to settle.
The final incubator.
Eggs.
We found an Igloo Polar 120 Qt cooler (Wal-Mart - about $80) that just fit (4) Sterlite shoe box size tubs (don't remember the size). I had an old 2 bulb light fixture and a couple of 25W blue "party" bulbs (Wal-Mart - less than $3 each), a ZooMed 500R thermostat and an Accu-Rite digital indoor/outdoor thermometer/humidity meter (Wal-Mart about $11). The hardest thing to find was the Perlite and Vermiculite, all the Perlite we found had fertilizer in them. I finally found it at a local Feed store (Shultz brand). A small 8 Qt bag of each is more than enough to use with (4) bins.
I used Bobby's "Incubation and Hatching" Sticky, except the Perlite/Vermiculite/Water should be measured by weight, not volume. http://www.tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181
I cut the wires for the lights, inserted them with the thermostat probe into a hole in the top of the cooler, and reconnected them, paying close attention to polarity of the wires, and taping them securely.
I taped the thermostat probe to the bottom of the cooler between the 2 middle bins. The thermometer probe in in the substrate in one of the bins.
Close the top and adjust the thermostat until the "outside" remote probe (thermometer) reads about 89 degrees consistently. It might take a few hours for it to settle.
The final incubator.
Eggs.
