INCUBATING BEARDED DRAGON EGGS

These are the methods I use, they are not the only ways there are - just what has worked for me. So far I have had between 95% - 100% hatch rates and similar survival rates through the first 2 months and into maturity.

I use the 'bottom of the line' Hovabator, no fan, no egg turner, just the styrofoam 'box' with a heater and thermostat in the lid along with a couple of windows.
I tape over almost all the holes in the top with duct tape as well as the ones in the base.
I fill it to the brim with premoistened vermiculite and calibrate the thermostat to keep the temperature at ground level at 81-84 max.
I keep a digital thermometer taped to the lid with the probe running through one of the hole and resting on the vermiculite.

Once it is set up and the vermiculite is the right moisture, I pick it up to get an idea of how heavy it should be and I use that plus scraping at the vermiculite serface once a week to check to see if I need to add water- plain old tap water, boiled and allowed to cool. I keep it in the basement so the outside temperature never gets close to what I want the eggs to sit at. This may not be a scientific method of regulating humidity, but it works for me!

Once I have eggs, I put each one, embryo side up (look for the little thread like red veins using a strong flashlight) in a depression I make with by finger so that the top of the egg is just at soil level with the rest 'below ground'. I never touch the eggs again until they have hatched- I won't help babies out; either they make it naturally or they don't get to pass their genes on.
I keep the eggs separated in the incubator, I have a feeling that this makes them all hatch out at different times, but if one were to die and form mould, it would help prevent infection sprading.

Once the babies hatch they spend 12-24 hours in a margarine tub (withpin holes for ventilation) sitting on moistened kitchen paper towelling until the egg sack is absorbed, then they go into a 30 gallon tank on dry paper towels and I mist them at least twice daily. I provide two branches for basking, one that sits right in the path of the heat bulb and the other that reaches right up to the fluorescent. That way they do their own thermoregulation and UV absorbtion.

As they grow, I separate them by size into different tanks to avoid intimidation and once they reach 6 weeks I start selling them. At 10" long they can be transferred from paper onto washed playsand.