Posted By: LisaMix
Incubator Temps - 09/17/10 05:28 PM
What temps do you try to maintain your homemade incubator at? I'm assuming that the most important temp is the bottom surface temp of the incubator rather than the ambient temp. I say this because I know the babies seem to be fine in my shirt against my 98.6 degree skin even though my house is only 74 degrees. When I try to set up my homemade incubator using a plastic shoe box and a human heating pad, I can get a fairly steady ambient temp of 77 - 85 degrees but I can't seem to maintain a steady bottom temp over time. It varies each time I open the lid to check it. How low a surface temp is acceptable and again how high is dangerously high? I have covered the box with t-shirt fabric so that they cannot burrow down and actually touch the plactic bottom where the heat source is. I am just not near a point where I feel comfortable leaving them there for an hour at a time without continuoulsy double checking the temp swing.