Hello, I just wanted to ask what temperatures do you guys use to incubate your eggs I've read the sticky at the top of the page and my temperature is 84 degrees which is right in the middle of the recommended temperature range. I have the eggs on moist vermiculate and check it to see if it moist every 4 days and I'm starting to think that the female that is laying the eggs is infertile.
I have had five hatchlings 'appear' in my tank without ever seeing the eggs, but the temps in the tank where the eggs were most likely laid varied from the high 70's to the high 80's. That is air temperature, the range in the dirt would have been smaller.
I would incubate them outside of the enclosure, or this is a technique that works for me: I would use a deli dish/small container with a clear lid and purchase a bag of vermiculite at your local garden store, some Home Depots may even sell it in their garden section. Then, pour some of the vermiculite into the container and mix it with luke-warm water until the vermiculite is MOIST, NOT WET. Then, place the eggs CAREFULLY into the container, careful not to turn them, and place a thermometer in the container to keep an eye on the temp. Partially bury to mostly bury the eggs (I usually half-bury my eggs, but you can submerge them as far as to where only 1/4 of the egg is exposed...you may want to start out with this to assure they are incubating correctly), then make sure you POKE HOLES into the top of the lid to allow the heat and air ventilation to get into the container, as the eggs need to breathe. Now, this part is up to you. You can incubate them by placing them near a light source until the temp regulates around 83-88 degrees, or place them directly into the enclosure in a spot where it would be around these temps, and be careful that it does NOT fall below 75 degrees at night or there is a chance your eggs could die (this happened to me once, but luckily mine never did-I left for a few days and the bulb blew (I have a separate smaller tank set up as an incubator), so the temp. dropped to around 70, so I immediately changed the bulb and luckily the eggs survived, I checked and saw movement in the largest egg so I was assured they were still alive). Again, regulate the temps around 82-88 degrees, yet preferrably somewhere around 85-86 degrees is IDEAL. Then the eggs should hatch in 35-40 days under those conditons, give or take a few (depending on the egg and its development). Just make sure the temp does NOT go above 90 degrees or so. It destroyed one of my eggs which I believe was trying to hatch, but due to it being so hot in the enclosure it easily got exhausted after breaking its embryo and probably dried up the egg as it was trying to hatch so the poor baby suffocated and died inside its egg....and the temp was around 92 degrees when this happened, so MAKE SURE that it does NOT go above 88 or 90 degrees. It will be fine at 88, but try your best to avoid it reaching 90. Like I said, around 85-86 is ideal, and all of my eggs have done best at that. Good luck, and I hope my advice helps!
