Food for thought on temp fluctuations..

[Loui1203]

I made a homemade incubator comprised of a plastic shoebox, vermiculite, and heat cable and naturally, I got temp fluctuations. At first they were really bad, 5-10 degree changes daily then as i got better with it they went down to 2-5 degrees but sometimes I would have an extreme flux down to 75 or up to 95 ( those temps would only last a few hours until i caught them). Anywho.. despite the constant fluctuations I managed to hatch out 6 perfect babies without kinks or any problems at all. So this got me thinking that maybe temp fluctations aren't completely to blame.. maybe it's strong genetics that gave me 6 healthy babies and weak genetics that cause temp fluctuations to harm embyos. Again food for thought, just adding to the debate.
:inquisitive:

 

[Wild West Reptile]

What did you hatch out? M/F's? What temp where you aiming for? I too believe that strong, healthy genetics will hatch out healthy baby's regardless of temperature raising or fluctuations. Oh, and congrats on the healthy babys....post some pics!

 

[acpart]

I think it's a complicated issue. At the most I'd say that strong genetics could help a baby survive and be born normally in more adverse situations (like temp fluctuations) and conversely that more babies could be born with defects regardless of their genetics if subjected to temperature fluctuations. One thing to consider as well is that 6 babies is a small sample. For example, on a different topic, I have bred albino to het albino and gotten 6 non-albinos (making me wonder whether the het was really a het) but the next season, the first 4 from the same pairing were albino. Hopefully the rest of your babies will be OK as well.

Aliza

 

[Loui1203]

I was planning on getting a real incubator if any problems arose btw. And temperature sexing is the only thing i am concerned about. I was going for females and the temp was 80-82 88% of the time roughly but i'm not sure what i have yet. I'm curious as to if there is a critical time in development where the embyro either developes as a male or female or if it is very gradual. I'm betting on the first one. And here are my babies 3 mack snows, 2 high yellows, and one Albino Mack snow (really suprised me) from a high yellowxmack snow pairing w/ no known hets.

This is the only one I am worried about because she hasn't developed her body spots yet like her hatchmate above. She's about 4 weeks old but she eats great and is a fisty little thing.

This girl is a rubber ducky yellow. I'm in awe everytime I open her tub, I've never seen a yellow this bright/vivid on a reptile before. The picture doesn't really show it.

My albino mack snow mystery girl

 

[Baoh]

I've bought a bunch of kinked-tail leos and bred them to each other. I didn't get kinked offspring from any pairings. That's ten different pairings with six to fourteen offspring per female. I have purposefully created massive swings in incubation temperatures to see if that would produce kinks, too, in eggs from normal and kinked parents. No kinks.

Plenty of nonsense abounds, though, where people manufacture reasons or jump to premature conclusions without adequate evidence instead of just admitting they aren't sure.

Your results do not surprise me. I'm quite glad to have gotten away from all of that and rehome the occasional rescue and focus on a special line or two of my own selection.

 

[pelon87]

doesn´t the tempeture drop in the wild during the night ?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Yes, in the wild temperatures DO drop at night. It's just a hunch, but I honesty do not feel that gradual temperature variations are problematic for incubating eggs. It's the oscillating temperatures over a shorter period of time that have a potential for embryonic development issues. Since the Hovabator has a pretty primitive temperature controller, the constant opening and closing of the unit can cause this temperature effect. I used Hovabators successfully for MANY years one I learned to only open it if necessary, and for very short periods of time to keep the temps stable.

 

[pelon87]

i was just wondering bcuz i keep reading that it shouldn't fluctuated more than 1 degree