Beginning prep for first breeding attempt - any advice appreciated!

[Kate Arbon]

Hey everyone

I've been wanting to try my hand at breeding for ages, and it's finally gotten the better of me so I'm going to go ahead and do it. I'm currently expecting failure, but that's ok as it's my first go and I just want to have the experience really.

I'm going to try on G. rosea. I have a female RCF and am going to get a mature male RCF this week (hoping that way for plenty of red babies, tho I'm not sure if it exactly works like that).

Reasons I am expecting failure: I don't know when my female last moulted (only got her 3.5 months ago) so if they breed, she may moult out afterwards. Also I will have to move house in about 3 months which, if the breeding is successful, could be right about halfway through her 'pregnancy' so I'm wondering if the stress will increase the risk of it failing. Of course both of these things require the actual mating to work without her eating him, for which I will have to wait and see!

So my plan is to put the male in his tank and put his tank next to the females, and leave them to see if they sense each other and he starts drumming. Then I will do my best to make sure she is receptive before introducing him, by shark-tanking him in a pot in her tank and letting her figure out he's there. Then I guess if she is, I just let them at it and hope for the best!

I'm quite excited about it. I have had Ts for 2 years and feel like breeding is the next 'level' of the hobby. Even if it doesn't result in slings at least it will give me an idea of how to do things later when I try again

[Guy Tansley]

Obviously read up on the subject as much as possible beforehand but judging by your post, you seem to be on the right track!

[Louise~Nichols]

Hiya Kate,
I've been mating and breeding a few types here, and that includes clutches of RCF slings!
Elvira (one of my RCF girlies) is gravid again now after being mated some 6 weeks ago to my gorgeous male (Gangly Griff, photo attached)...Colin was here when I carried out the first mating, lol, and her ladyship was a very willing, dare I say *tarty* spider when Griff was introduced.
I don't tend to shark-tank though...I watch for the girls to be in good condition and had a moult in the previous 2 months to reduce risks of *moult out*. Sometimes I'll try and retrieve whatever silk is in the female's tub and offer it to the guy for his approval, and all this is generally done alongside keeping the male and female tubs close to each other. Whilst Griff does drum a lot, Elvira and the other ladies have never talked back to him, yet the matings have been as smooth as can be. My advice there is just to ensure the female is well fed and has a decent sized enclosure so the boy can get clear if there's trouble, stay vigilant and get those forceps between them in the event of any aggression.

In your situation (based on time of year; my Roseas seem to have their annual moult around November/December) I'd say your female may have moulted just before you got her, but that is a chancy assumption...is she looking particularly red or dull buff?

So, two choices here, either: leave it until you have had her moult with you, and got the house move out of the way so you have the best foundations to start with.
OR: get cracking on with it sharpish..but this could mean an eggsac occurring just as you're moving house...One of my previous Rosea clutches was laid just 11 weeks from mating...so that could be a bit of a stress-fest if you're mid house move!

Good luck Kate, I'll be cheering you on...prepare to have hair loss to rival a flicky Brachypelma's backside, LOL...I know I stress when I'm waiting for eggs...then even more after they're laid!!

[Kate Arbon]

Hi Louise, thanks for the info

I did suspect when I got my rosea that she may have been freshly moulted. Her colours were spectacular when I got her and she was quite skinny. So maybe (hopefully) you're right about that. She is slightly less bright now but definitely not dull. In fact she looks like this:



Griff looks stunning! Good luck with Elvira. Do you find that RCF x RCF matings result in a lot of RCF slings? Do you get many NCF slings in with them? And how young can you tell what colour phase they are? (I have seen RCF slings for sale on some sites but was thinking they would be too small to look red, so maybe it's just an assumption because they were bred from two red parents)

[Louise~Nichols]

You're welcome Kate...I'm excited for you!!
It sounds even more positive that she may have been fresh moulted from your description...so, flip the coin of chance and get ready for a mating party!! LOL Looking at the muchly pretty photo, your girly's colours are proportionate to Elvira's shade, and I know she moulted second week of December.

And thank you...I'm very proud of Gangly Griff too!! As for the slings colouration and development...all I can go on is that my rcf babies so far have grown into red adults from the updates that I get from their owners! Last year I bought two additional girls in case of any losses, so I'll be waiting to see how their latest offspring develop, as well as this *clutch to be*....it's been an age since my NCF's...so I can't put my hand on my heart and say I'm sure that they seemed a little more dull fleshy in colour as slings...I think I've also grown biased towards my RCF's!! LOL

[simon player]

Hi all

my first breading was with the G Rosea the mum was very good with the egg sack and i left it with her till they all hatched out 180 all in all still got some of them 3 females and 3 MM.

simon

[Colin D Wilson]

Simon,
Some of my rosea seem to just lose interest in the sac and dump it anywhere, one even dropped hers in the waterbowl.
A few others i've mentioned this to with have said they've had similar.

You had this experience Lou? or are all yours proper mothers and not dizzy like my lot

Colin
p.s. nice to see my little buddy Gangly Griff again...what a charactor

[Louise~Nichols]

You had this experience Lou? or are all yours proper mothers and not dizzy like my lot

Colin
p.s. nice to see my little buddy Gangly Griff again...what a charactor

Colin...LOL...Myfanwy is one of a rare few that got bored of her eggsac, but there again she's a tad psychotic at the best of times!! I opened the lid of her tub one day and she quite literally threw her eggsac over the side, then skulked off into her favourite corner. Sweet soul!! Thankfully the eggs were just 10 days short of becoming nymphs, and artificial incubation finished the job nicely.

Gangly Griff sends a leg-wave! hehehe Still going strong and making good sperm webs...despite being a one-spider tour of fatherhood he hasn't realised the ladies are all off limits now!

[simon player]

The mum was a good one she looked after the sack all the way, I have just had that problem with my B Emilia so took the sack of her it is now in a incubator.

simon

[Colin D Wilson]

Good luck with that Simon, let us know how it gets on will you

[mary walters]

Simon, I still have a mm striata here of yours mate, will bring to BTS for ya

[Tom Forman]

I never realized how nerve-wrecking the mating process is. Probly just cause it was the first time for me but my heart was beating really fast.

I got the male and put him into the females enclosure, the male could tell something was up but the female didn't even move.

The male starts edging forwards, my heart starts pounding...

Male stops and waits.

Tense times, I'm thinking of aborting cause the female is not responding.

Male edges forwards again and touches one of the females legs.

No reaction. I'm reaching out for some cardboard to call it off when all of a sudden there is some violent swirling about.

I couldn't tell which was which anymore and all i could see were massive fangs twirling about.

I was bricking it at this point and was hoping the male hadn't been bitten. I soon noticed the female was in the dominant position but the male moved some legs and soon they were in the right position for mating.

A few movement of the palps and about a minute later the male is slowly retreating and the female is sitting there in a dazed state.


All went well. Unfortunately the male decided to escape as I was putting himm back in his cage and crawled behind the females cage...

He wasn't at all happy about me trying to fish him out for the next half hour. He's been hiding ever since but all in all I'd say it was a success.

Kate, hope yours goes smoothely too. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

PS: our circumstances seem to be very similar lol, I don't know when the female last moulted and I might be moving soon too. That is one of the reasons I tried this mating is to encourage the male to produce a sperm web. I've had him 2 weeks now and I don't think he has made one yet...
Cmon Eric...

[Colin D Wilson]

I think you've just described (perfectly) everybodys feelings on their first mating attempts Tom.
Certainly gets everything beating a little faster eh?

[J M Clegg]

Ah Tom, yes I know that feeling.

After months of searching I found a Haplopelma Minax male and duly put him in with my female. Where he just sat and sat and sat.

So I figured, give him some privacy and leave him be for 10 minutes and see what happens. I put the lid back on the tank and then just sat back and watched.

He then duly wandered around probing the edge of "Ting Tong's (From Thailand - MR Dudley)" burrow. She came out and they both got into the mating position and he managed to get both palps working in quick succession. He backed down and so did she, he turned to move away and then she just leaped out of knowhere and nailed him with both fangs through the carapice. She dragged him back down the burrow and 3 days later dumped the wreckage. That was back in November.

As yet still no sign of any egg sack, or even a pending egg sack....................

At the moment it seems as though he was a £20 dinner for her!

I hope that when I move them all into my new spider house at the beginning of May she may feel a little more secure and think about egg laying. Until then, I have to wait and see.

Pairing and mating seems to be the easy bit, inducing the female to then lay the eggs seems to be a different story. Still that's half the fun of the learning process!

Good luck with yours.

[Kate Arbon]

Well, I just placed the order for my MM rosea, so hopefully he should be here some time this week. And then the fun and stress can start.