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!!!
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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