Incubation temperature

In August the 25th the last terrapin that I had in the incubator hatched. I was still on holidays and my grandmother looked after it. This means that 100% of the eggs incubated artificially hatched. Not 100% of the eggs because there is still one egg outdoors incubating naturally.

I have used two types of incubator: a Jaeguer and a home made one, using a tank heater and the eggs placed on a brick on the water. With the two types I have incubated eggs for male, at temperatures close to 25ºC and for female, at temperatures close to 30ºC. Both types have worked quite well, and the temperature oscillation through the incubation was also very similar.

 

Regarding humidity, I don't trust the data I have obtained. In the home made incubator it has been 100% most of the time, which is probably true. But in the Jaeguer, the humidity has been 0% for several weeks, difficult to believe.

 

Jaeguer

Home made

Eggs incubated at higher temperature:

 Jaeguer



The temperature has kept between 29,2ºC and 30ºC. The incubation lasted 45 days. The data logger recorded the temperature every hour. The days in which the temperature seems to drop suddenly correspond to me opening the incubator for some reason.

The strong oscillations of August the 18th and the 19th correspond to the day that I saw the egg collapsing (see older posts). I added water to the vermiculite and I opened the incubator several times to see what was happening.  On the 20th and the 21st I lowered the temperature in an impulsive reaction when I realized the egg was dehydrating. I thought that this would help to rise up the humidity (it was probably not necessary and just moistening the vermiculite would have been enough). On the 22d, once the egg  recovered,  I slightly elevated the temperature.

In the home made incubator

The temperature has moved between 28,4ºC and 29,4ºC.  The temperature was not well calibrated in the beginning and I kept it closer to the 29ºC than the 30ºC. The incubation lasted 50 days.

Regarding the eggs incubated al lower temperature

I only have data from the home made incubator. The temperature has kept between 25-26ºC. The incubation lasted 64 days.

For some days the temperature was over 26ºC. It is probably explained because the room where I have the incubators reached that temperature. Although I have the incubators in the cooler room of the house, the temperature outdoors reached the 40ºC, and indoors it was also high.

In the incubators the temperature has been more or less the same through all the incubation. I imagine the situation is completely different in the egg outdoors. I don't know what is happening at egg level, but on the surface we have had one of the hottest summers for years. The terrapin has no hatched so far, but I still think it can happen. Just in case I have put a mesh over the nest area.

If the terrapin emerges and goes to the water, the adults will look at it as a prey. I checked it in last year's hatchling, bigger than a recently hatched terrapin. I had to rescue it from the female that took it with her mouth and was swimming to deeper waters. The hatchling tried to move away when the females chased him,  and it still stimulated her more .

There is a data logger by the egg. It will be very interesting to compare the air temperature with the temperature at that level. And this would be still more interesting if a hatchling emerged.