Cooling for breeding

[Kate Arbon]

Hi all.

It's now been 13 weeks since my G. rosea was mated. She is very fat now. Throughout the last few months she has been enthusiastically landscaping, moving dirt around and moving it back again. She stopped doing it about two weeks ago, and then in the last few days she has dug a burrow right down to the bottom of her tank (conveniently up against the side, so I covered it with card to stop her webbing it up and now have a nice window).

Anyway I'm hoping that this is a sign she's getting ready to lay! I've turned off her heatmat and moved her to a different room which is slightly cooler. But it's still around 20-21 C. Does anyone know if that is cool enough (the heatmat probably brought temps up to about 27-28 so it's a drop of about 7 degrees) or should I try and find somewhere cooler?

Keeping my fingers crossed to see her start webbing soon

[Colin D Wilson]

Hi Kate,

Regarding the cooling period.....this is usually beneficial a month or two before mating occurs (simulating the natural environmental conditions)

I would return the tank to "as was" and let her get on with it.

Colin

[Kate Arbon]

Hi Colin.

I was under the impression that different species benefit from cooling periods at different times. I know G. pulchra apparently need cooling before mating, but Louise said that in her experience G. rosea can be encouraged to lay by cooling.

I'd be interested to hear any more opinions on it though.

[Colin D Wilson]

I think i was a little vague in my post actually...hope this is a little clearer

You said that your spider had been escavating and digging burrows, this is natural behaviour and from your post this has been done when the temp was at the normal. if she's going through this behaviour then leave her be as she's going about things naturally, she's only been mated for 13 weeks which, in the case of a rosea, could be considered "about normal" timing give or take a week or two. This is why i said leave as is.

Cooling off to induce sac creation is really attempted when the female has gone for over 6 months after mating in my opinion, the cooling off "tricks" the spider into thinking the seasons have gone by in 6 months or so, instead of 12. When the temp rises again after this "trick cooling" the spider will more than likely create the sac.
I assume this is what Louise may have meant, and i can't really see a reason why a shorter time from mating through to cooling can't be successful.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you cool her off now her metabolism will slow down and things may take even longer if you leave her at this lower temp.

Using "trick" environmental conditions is a good way of getting things to fit in with your schedule if instigated correctly.
For instance a mature male rosea can be programmed to make a fresh sperm web at any time of the year...simply cool him off for a week or two, then soak his substrate and let the temperature come back up to normal drying the substrate out..give him a few days after the temp hits normal and he'll produce, i remember a few puzzled faces and questions when Louise and myself said we both did this.

Colin