Incubator for egg sacs

[mschemmy]

I was wondering if any breeders can share their experience of using a reptile incubator vs a DYI incubator. Here are my questions:

1 Are there advantages or disadvantages with a reptile incubator over a DYI setup?
2. Do you have better success with sling survival or the number of eggs that successfully become spiderlings?
3. Are the reptile incubators easier to maintain and use of a DYI setup?
4. Can you pull the sac earlier if you have a reptile incubator or is it still recommended to keep the egg sac with the female for around 30 days?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

[fcat]

Can you define reptile incubator? For some reason I feel like that includes electricity...

Have you done a search here?

Either I am confused or I don't know what there would be to maintain....

When I think of incubating a sac I think of a deli cup with some water in it...and then another container to keep flies out, mine was an acrylic shoe box

A question for you to answer...
What is mom going to be doing for 30 days, and how could an incubator do that?
What are your temps in the room you want to keep this incubator?

 

[l4nsky]

IMHO, the best option is both, not one or another.

https://arachnoboards.com/threads/the-husbandry-of-moisture-dependent-slings.359214/post-3317144

What kind of reptile incubator are you going to attempt to use?

To give a little bit more detail:

1. As long as they can get to and hold the same parameters (RH especially), there isn't a benefit of one over the other. Most times though, the larger space in a reptile incubator is harder to control, which is why even reptile breeders will use smaller incubators within their larger one.
2. I work with moisture dependent species and I started having better success with them once I started using a dual incubator setup. See, the larger outer incubator is used to set and hold a baseline set of parameters that the smaller inner incubator can never fall below. That smaller inner incubator, using it's own water source, then creates the ideal environment for their development (98% RH @ 80°F with no condensation).
3. No, a single incubator will always have the same problem. The air it's exchanging with is room parameters, which are usually much, MUCH drier than needed. The double incubator method, IMHO, is the easiest to maintain and most succesful at rearing slings since the air the inner incubator is exchanging with is the carefully controlled air of the outer incubator.
4. I wouldn't with a single setup, but it is possible with a dual setup, just not advised. I've pulled as early as 15 days and opened the eggsack in the incubator. Even in that emergency situation then with my proven setup, the 1i still had problems molting, indicating that despite a consistent high RH environment, they still lost more moisture during the extended development outside the sac than they would have inside the sac. Keeping the eggsack with the female for 30-32 days has been my most successful strategy as they're usually EWL at that time, past the delicate egg period of development.