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Poecilotheria mettallica Mating to EWL's

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  • Poecilotheria mettallica Mating to EWL's

    It took 3 attempts and different approaches, but in the end we managed it. on Friday the 6th of May 2011 the eggsac was spotted, I wasn't sure if I was seeing things but stigg confirmed it later on in the night.

    If memory serves me rightly, The females were mated around June/July 2010. The male was left with each female for 10-14 days and taken out when it was obvious the female had turfed him out of the burrow! The male co-habited inside the females burrow sitting snuggled up next to her until, may be, she had her wicked way and didn't want a cuddle any more!

    For the rest of the summer they were sprayed occasionally with the thermostat set at 30oC. The probe was on the right hand side of the tank behind the cork bark and the burrow temperature kept a a cozy 25oC daytime and on a night 21oC (25oC on the stat)
    She was fed on Dubia roaches once every 3-4 weeks.

    Around end sep-November time I dropped the stat temp to 25oC day and 21oC night. not a gradual drop. I dropped the stat by 2 degrees one week and 3 weeks later dropped to lower temp stated above.
    sprayed the tank a little more over the cooler months (upto 80% humidity) then in February I stopped spraying as much... only what she needed to keep a little humidity in (approx50-60%)
    As the weather out side was noticeably getting warmer in March I started warming up the tank in 2 stages up by 2oC then the final 3oC 4 weeks later. on week 2 of April I literally threw in 1.5 litres of water and continued emptying the spray bottle into the tank every 2-3 days for just over a week. The substrate was swimming and the females were very pissed off hehehe!
    Note the females stopped eating end of January / beginning of feb.

    Anyway, one female molted as soon as the substrate was wetted down and the other kept going. on the 6th May I noticed some very fluffy webbing. It looked like I had put in cotton wool balls and she had been having fun fluffing it all up! With my crappy torch I thought I could see something white shining back.. when stigg came in with the good torch, sure enough there was a 2" eggsac. No eggsac was there the day before... know that for certain because I could still see her through side of tank.

    I got a pillowcase and covered the tank for the 4 weeks between her making the sac and pulling it from her

    At which point my friend Claire was here to help pull the sac, both of us screamed with Joy when we saw the eggs-wi-legs and promptly got very drunk :P

    I share this information because I want to see more people with eggsacs. Dont be hands on, put the tank in the most noisy room in the house, just feed n spray.. oh and alter temp when needed. remember in the wild it is not going to be vibration free, get them used to the normal banging and crashing inside your house then any vibration that would scare them, wont do so
    Good luck and let me know if this works for you


    But simplified.. it's like this:


    Best time to mate appears to be May-July in order to synchronize the seasons with the british seasons - Spids are not stupid.. they seem to know what season we are in despite being kept in artificial conditions

    Temps / Humidity...

    Heat mat should be close but not attached to the burrow - see pics below. Heat mat is to the left and cork & probe to the far right

    from now (beginning of June) until about Oct/Nov time
    50-60% humidity with a burrow temperature of 25oC day and 21oC night
    Ambient temperature outside the burrow should be about 30oC day and 25-26oC night

    Mid oct to early nov, drop external temps by 5oC so outside the burrow is about 25oC day and the internal burrow temp should be about 21oC day and around 19oC night (or as close as possible)
    Stop feeding or feed once every 4-6 weeks
    Humidity 70-80% during cold months

    Start drying out the tank beginning of february (spray only to add touch of humidity to keep female happy once every 10-14 days)

    Beginning to middle of March start to warm up.(again feed sparingly)

    Beginning of April sling 1.5 litres of water into the tank (if using tank same as mine, alternatively the water level wants to match the substrate level and you should have a pi**ed off female)
    start slinging in loads of food and allow to dry out, if you get some mould sling in the woodlice clean up crew!

    Beginning of may... well... watch out for the whispy webbing!

    Good luck

    Lisa xxx


    First 2 links: EWL's
    Second 2 links: tank layout using Exo Terra 30 x 30 x 45
    Last Link: mummy mettallica!!!



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    My Collection: - Support captive breeding





  • #2
    Sounds like a receipe but if it is followed the end result will be worthwhile.

    Ps. Am I the only person in the world who doesnt do inyourfacebook cos I cant see any pictures.

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    • #3
      aah I will check the permissions on the photo album. failing that I will upload the to photobucket or something
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      • #4
        Very well done Lisa, that's fantastic! I'll be spending a lot of time comparing your sucessful notes with my failure notes

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        • #5
          I hope they help you Sylvi. would be nice to see them pop up the hobby more often
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          • #6
            I think they will Lisa. I had a sac but she ate it. My notes aline with yours to begin with, but not at the end lol I think your pillowcase idea is brilliant. I can't wait to see the photos! I'm not on facebook. xxx

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            • #7
              I dont do "face-space", "my-book" or "my-bobee-page" either Pete so you're not on your own ... although we are a dying breed

              Anyway .. looks like it's just as simple as it should be, as Sylvi said ... she got a sac ... unfortunately it was eaten but there's always the next time.

              The key is obviously "Don't faff around with her too much and let her get on with it".


              Congrats M & L.
              Don't forget to learn what you can, when you can, where you can.



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              • #8
                uploaded to my member gallery...



                yes Colin, basically this year I kept to roughly what I had learned but just 'forgot' about her for want of a better description... pretended she wasn't mated and got on with the seasoning really... any eggsac is a bonus at the end of the day.
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                • #9
                  Thanks for uploading to your gallery Lisa...

                  They look good eh ... and to be honest (and a little facetious .. maybe ) it's actually nice to finally read a breeding report that's been succesful and produced something...
                  Don't forget to learn what you can, when you can, where you can.



                  Please Support CB Grammostola :- Act Now To Secure The Future

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                  • #10
                    Once again, thank you Colin

                    Might get Stigg to put together a P.mettallica Psy-trance CD for the next matings hahahaha!
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                    • #11
                      Lovely photos Lisa, it's nice to be able to see the set up and nice for you to be able to look back on them later and re-coup that 'feel good' factor!!

                      I was chatting to Thomas V at the BTS about metallica breeding, he said that out of about 12 sacs he's had about 10 eaten. The pillowcase idea really appeals to me, it must help to stabilise the humidity a bit as well as deterring you from peeking. I was struggling with the humidity in the later stages.

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                      • #12
                        to be fair, we had a busy few weeks while she had the eggsac and I never sprayed the enclosure while the pillowcase was on.
                        Substrate at the front was bone dry but she had made an enclosed tunnel (I will try to draw this out so people understand what I am trying to say) and in that area the substrate was still damp. it was 4-5" long and 50% behind the cork and 50% behind the plant so the humidity, for her, must have been spot on.

                        In fact behind the cork it was still reasonably damp.

                        I did have a weekly sneak peak but I could only just see the white sac reflecting back with the mini LED torch through the cotton wool webbing.

                        Soooo.... continental size pillow cases a must for P.metts hahaha! A friend of mine actually did tell me to do this - he does this with all his apparently. Think I will be making a point of ensuring this permanent practice form now on.

                        Should also note... apart from the temps being higher i this instance, this exact same set up worked for my P.ruffilata some time ago. But she was in a darkened room rather than had the pillowcase.
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                        • #13
                          P.metallica update:

                          we lost one EWL before they molted to N1 - yolk went black
                          Another didn't make it but I didn't realise it hadn't 'flipped open' from it's yolk-eggy bit when we tipped the eggsac. I shouldn't laugh but it's legs and spinnerettes have turned black and it kinda looks like it's doing a dog/cat impression of trying to lick it's rear end!
                          a 3rd one looks like it has choked it trying to molt to N1, if it hasn't pulled out by morning I think we can safely say it's dead.

                          So from 95 EWL's we have a definite 92 make it to N1. When I resize the picture I will upload that to my BTS member gallery. At present they are all playing the game of 'pile onto each other close to the edge of netting and make the owner cringe!' Other than that they are all wiggling nicely!
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                          • #14
                            I am delighted to announce that approx 2/3 have made it to spiderling stage. the others are walking about with their carapaces popped open looking for a quiet comfortable spot to finish the job... they look so funny!

                            I will update my gallery here on the BTS as soon as I have downsized the pictures. I have take pics through every stage since we pulled the sac.

                            Can't tell you all how happy I am to make it all the way from mating to spiderling! Still feels unreal! :P

                            Peace out!

                            Lisa xxx
                            My Collection: - Support captive breeding




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                            • #15
                              Oooo well done Lisa!
                              Are you going to have another go with the female next season?

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