Need help with incubation

[Pickle]

Hello. Thank you to everyone who tried to help with pickle and her pregnancy. She passed away yesterday morn at the vet after spending the night. The eggs were too big and too many for her body the vet said. I am trying to incubate the eggs the vet gave me since she said they might and look viable. She had 42 eggs. I have them in vermiculite spaced an inch and half apart. Input dots on the top to make sure they didn't roll and i am having trouble with humidity. I can keep the heat up but not the humidity i have them in 3 tupperwear containers. I really need at least one egg to hatch and live for the sake of my heart. Please help.

 

[kinyonga]

Do you have lids on the containers?
Did you moisten the vermiculite?
Do you have holes in the containers or lids?

 

[drcrossfire]

If they are in a sealed tupperware container they will keep the humidity. What temperature are you keeping them at?

 

[Pickle]

Yes i have lids with 6 holes in them and i did wet the sand i am trying to keep them at 70-85 degrees .... Does is matter if the temp fluctuates?

 

[drcrossfire]

Yes i have lids with 6 holes in them and i did wet the sand i am trying to keep them at 70-85 degrees .... Does is matter if the temp fluctuates?

It's best to keep them.at more consistent temperatures.

Wet sand may not be your best option. I recommend superhatch or hatch rite. Also.. that's too many holes. I don't put any holes in my containers... Some.put 2 small ones in.

 

[kinyonga]

I also have to say sand is not the best option and that you don't need so many holes...I put two very tiny holes in a shoe box sized container. I think sand pulls moisture from the eggs.
I do incubate at fluctuating temperatures but from about 73 to 76F.

You said you used vermiculite then you said you used sand...which is it??

 

[junglefries]

Temps for veils are a little lower than what you would expect. i agree with kinyonga. keep them stable and below 78° & above 74°. sorry about pickle.

 

[fluxlizard]

I agree with keep the temps down some. I do 80 and below. Anything above say 83-84 and you start to run risks of problems with the hatchlings.

I disagree about fluctuating temps- I've found chameleon eggs do much better with fluctuating temps. The biggest healthiest babies that I've gotten have been with day/night temp fluctuations- sometimes by as much as 10 degrees f difference.

If I'm not doing temp fluctuations other than ambient room temp fluctuations over the seasons, then temps are no higher than 77 and can be 68-69 in the winter.

 

[Pickle]

I use vermaculite and i will change the lids so there wont be so many holes.

 

[kinyonga]

You can just put duct tape over the holes.

 

[fluxlizard]

I don't even use holes. My containers are sealed throughout incubation and hatching and they do great.

 

[AndrewBrian]

guys sorry to be latching on to this thread my female panther laid eggs yesterday too... i live in the philippines temperature is pretty much consistent from 77-80 degrees indoors... i have my digital reptile thermometer/hydrometer and humidity is 79-81% inside the closet... my container however is quite small... and i did not bury the eggs in the vermiculite... they are just on top and burried a little bit just so they dont roll... is this setup ok? does anyone have a link for incubating without an incubator?

 

[fluxlizard]

guys sorry to be latching on to this thread my female panther laid eggs yesterday too... i live in the philippines temperature is pretty much consistent from 77-80 degrees indoors... i have my digital reptile thermometer/hydrometer and humidity is 79-81% inside the closet... my container however is quite small... and i did not bury the eggs in the vermiculite... they are just on top and burried a little bit just so they dont roll... is this setup ok? does anyone have a link for incubating without an incubator?
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Sounds right to me.
here is a piccy from my gallery of how I sometimes keep chameleon eggs under the sink.
You can see a few more on my blog (link at bottom of this message) with the container lids off. Maybe in the slideshow when the blog opens, maybe some in posts about veileds hatching.

edit- here is one of those containers hatching. You can see how the eggs are set in the vermiculite pretty clearly here. I do not use holes and use airtight containers. Air humidity outside the container then is irrelevant and you don't have to worry about water loss over time inside the container. There is enough air in the container for incubating eggs. For vermiculite- I just soak it a few minutes in water and then squeeze all the water out of it by hand as I can get, and put the damp vermiculite in the container. For perlite I just use equal weights water and perlite, or maybe slightly less water by weight than perlite (will work for vermiculite too if you are worried about the squeeze method).

I do not like these particular containers with the dividers. They worked OK this time, but I just found the divider irritating. Also I prefer perlite over vermiculite, and when I use vermiculite- the small grade like this is my least favorite. But in this case I was out of perlite and I have drive 90 minutes each way to get more, and this was the only vermiculite I could find without miracle grow in it. This fine particle stuff has choked a few of my hatchlings to death as they stretch free of the egg over the years- they got a mouthful. It isn't very often- a few times out of thousands of hatchlings, but the larger vermiculite would prevent it.

 

[AndrewBrian]

ehehhehe thanks for the info.... here in the philippines we dont have perlite... vermiculite must do for the meantime.... cute lil hatchling hope to get some next year!!!! i think it's breeding season all my female chams suddenly got receptive! And my male cham sergio is the stallion that will mount the world!