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Leaving mum to rear the young

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  • Leaving mum to rear the young

    Today I found the success of the lazy man's breeding and I'm interested to find out the sum total of the 2 breeding successes I've had so far.

    The first was a mating of 2 x P. murinus females by a single male who was subsequently eaten by a female that moulted out.
    The 2nd female was mated in April and produced slings 3 months later, almost to the day. I have those slings still living together as a colony, minus about 30 of them and I'd guess there's 100+.

    The 2nd mating was a P. cambridgei which was put with Leanne's male in the third week of April and on 23rd of July after at least a month of her hiding in a bamboo tube I noticed a descent sized sac. Today I can see lots of little feet.

    So, to explain my lazy method, after reading of the success of leaving males and females species together for extended periods during breeding.
    I took both tanks/faunariums/cereal tubs and placed them close together in a large Exo-terra and left them for 2-3 days without the lids on but provided a good feed. I then removed the lids and left them together for a week. I noticed the P. murinus showing arboreal tendencies without a care for much disturbance. I was actually surprised that both females were not only happy to leave their enclosures but I seemed to have difficulty persuading them to return! However, on finding the right moment I was able to remove each individually by capturing with a cricket tub and placing them back into their enclosures. I saw this as a good way of letting the spiders decide on their timescale, not my impatience or waken hours.

    The next step on the lazy road was to feed mum up and wait. Once I was assured of a sac, (surprisingly easy or just good luck) I didn't try to remove it but attempted to raise humidity slightly and reducing disturbance to a minimum. Both mums did all the work and i didn't remove her til the offspring were into 1st instar stage. (I should say it was Trevor Walters who actually removed the P. murinus, so thanks to him).

    The advice I was given was contrary to what I've done but time limits dictated and I was interested to see the success of mother nature.

    The third breeding project which followed in early May was L. violaceopes using the same method. Again, after a week with one female which moulted on April 4th, the 2nd female was attempted but she subsequently ate the male. I took that as a good sign but the 2nd female moulted out, and seems not to be L. violaceopes but possibly another species! The first male has only recently webbed herself in so I'm fingers crosssed for her, using the same method of letting mum do the work.

    I was lucky enough to pick up 2 female Poecilotheria at BTS in May, both with slings living with mum. At a guess about 30 x P. regalis and 30 x P. striata, still with mum and seem to be thriving.
    Oh for happy families.

    Anyone else have similar experiences or thoughts on how things might progress.
    My Collection - Summer 2011




  • #2
    Peter love, Trevor is named JONES, I am Walters.

    Pleased for yours and Lea's cambs love xx
    spider woman at Wilkinsons

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    • #3
      Lazy Man's breeding method . I like the sound of that . Glad to hear you've had some success and hope you'll keep us updated .

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      • #4
        Managed to get some pix last night. I decided to pour some small crickets into the tube which caused quite a commotion and out they poured from the tube. One of the most interesting aspects of this was mum was catching the small cricket to feed to her young, despite the fact there was 3 large crickets in the Exo.

        here's one of P. cambridgei mum


        Slings in the tube:


        And the exit out.


        My Collection - Summer 2011



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        • #5
          Took some interesting pix of the OBT slings, or more appropriate their little webs:




          You can see a few grabbing food in this one, and 2 OBTs sharing a cricket (top right)
          My Collection - Summer 2011



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          • #6
            Wow, that's amazing! I wonder what will happen if you leave the kids with the mom all the way.
            My youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/testdasi

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            • #7
              Ahh them baby pictures are soooooo cute
              If these words he speaks are true,we're all humanary stew, if we dont pledge allegiance to
              the black widow.nahnahnahnahnah nah nah

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              • #8
                Pete, that lividum female you gave me is currently living in an exo set-up like you have done with my mm. Did you do any of the drying out, temperature drop type care after you removed the male. I'm planning on going your 'lazy way' route

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                • #9
                  No dropping of temperatures and no real formula tbh. I made sure the females were well fed before putting the male in. I left the males in for 5 days and fed the female well after removing him.
                  Once I realised there were possibilities on a sac (the female webbing herself in) I stopped feedings and dried the enclosure out however both enclosures became very dry so they received the occassional wetting of the substrate to raise humidity a little.
                  My Collection - Summer 2011



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