ask about breeding avicularia versicolor and age and so on..

[the ming cu]

1. I'm planning to breed my avicularia versicolor. I already have 2 female, 9 cm, with no male yet. I heard the female should be 4.25 inch to start the breeding, is that true?

2. How long a female can live in captivity? I already have my female for about 2.5 to 3 years. I bought it at the end of 2009 and midyear 2010. and yes, I bought them since they are slings.

3. I heard a male can mature in 1 year, is that with or without power feeding? If a male is mature in 1 year, I probably will go buy several unsex slings. so when they mature a year later, the female should be ready.

4. If a male has already mature, given food once a week condition, how much time he has before he's gone/unproductive? 1 year? 2 year? or not even close to 1 year but months?

5. most importantly, How the mother cage set up should be fore mating and producing egg? Is the mother will go burrowing? Because I read something strange in another forum, an avic burrowing? Is that really happen? or I should just give her a large tank 50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm should be fine with standard arboreal set up and cover up the tank with cloth to make it dark? a picture is apreciated.

6. is that true if a female is close with the male she's more eager to mature?

This is my first attempt of breeding and I'm at low budget so I musn't fail... i want slings of my own T so much.

[Craig Mackay]

Hi,

1. 9cm (leg span?) might be pushing it a bit for breeding but my female is around 4-4.5 inches and I got slings from her earlier in the year so with the next moult they'll definately be capable.

2. I reckon your probably looking at between 6-10 years lifespan for Avics if everything goes well with them. Of course, there are always exceptions.

3. A year is probably a bit optimistic. 18-24 months is probably more realistic if they are well fed.

4. Again, there's no rules with mature male lifespan but you could expect to get at least 6 months from him possible if you're lucky a year or so.

5. As long as you have a good place for the females to hide then they will be happy. Plenty substrate is useful as almost all tarantulas, arboreal or terrestrial will use substrate in their hide if given the option. It's quite common for arboreals to do a little bit of digging occassionaly. 50x50x50 is maybe a little on the large side but as long as she has a hide that she feels safe in size doesn't really matter. Covering the tank to make it dark definately helps to increase the security but it is important that they are subjected to natural light so they can tell the difference between day/night and the length of the days. It's probably better to cover one or two sides of the tank where her hide is.

6. Possibly. Some people have said this in the past but I don't know if its true or not.

Good luck and remember, failure isn't the end of the world. There is always more time to try again

[the ming cu]

Thank you for reply, it's really helping me.



Thank God I don't buy an ultimate male right away... There's an offer to me just now, but I'm afraid if I take it now, the female isn't ready yet. And if I take it, 6 month or 1 year later, the female will be ready but the male expire.... that's the very reason I'm asking about age to avoid that risk... since, in my country it's hard to find immature male on sale (most cannot judge it's sex when they are immature. A few seller can judge it, but unfortunately he's not selling T anymore.).

yes2, there's always a chance as long as the female/male not die or the budget die *rofl*.

Yes, you're right, if we are talking about age... it's "if God granted xx lifespan" or "if everything went well", well let's just say on average lifespan then lol. I hope all of my tarantulas have a long lifespan though -,-

hmmm, I might be buying a juvenile male instead of sling then.. if I'm lucky enough...

oh, more question, why is my female small (3 year and still 9cm leg span)? is it normal or my female is undergrowth? ._.

When should I give the female more food? before the mate? after the mate? and/or if she's already have eggs, should I bother giver her food or do not disturb her at all? if it's water, I probably will not misting her cage but give her a place to drink like this one:

[Craig Mackay]

Thank you for reply, it's really helping me.



Thank God I don't buy an ultimate male right away... There's an offer to me just now, but I'm afraid if I take it now, the female isn't ready yet. And if I take it, 6 month or 1 year later, the female will be ready but the male expire.... that's the very reason I'm asking about age to avoid that risk... since, in my country it's hard to find immature male on sale (most cannot judge it's sex when they are immature. A few seller can judge it, but unfortunately he's not selling T anymore.).

yes2, there's always a chance as long as the female/male not die or the budget die *rofl*.

Yes, you're right, if we are talking about age... it's "if God granted xx lifespan" or "if everything went well", well let's just say on average lifespan then lol. I hope all of my tarantulas have a long lifespan though -,-

hmmm, I might be buying a juvenile male instead of sling then.. if I'm lucky enough...

oh, more question, why is my female small (3 year and still 9cm leg span)? is it normal or my female is undergrowth? ._.

When should I give the female more food? before the mate? after the mate? and/or if she's already have eggs, should I bother giver her food or do not disturb her at all? if it's water, I probably will not misting her cage but give her a place to drink like this one:

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You're welcome
It's not impossible that the female will accept a mate at that size. They're not big spiders but if it was me I would wait until the next one. If you get the opportunity a juvenile male would be ideal although I can appreciate it probably not very easy to get hold of one when you need it. I wouldn't worry about your female being 3 years old and 9cm. That sounds pretty reasonable to me. You can grow them faster but it's not a problem if they are a little bit older. I tend to keep feeding fairly normal before and after mating. Maybe just throw in an extra couple of crickets now and again or the occassional tasty/fatty treat like some morio worms or something similar.

[the ming cu]

okay, so how about after the female produce egg sac, and if I want to keep it to her mother, do I need to give her food? or food is a bother to her? I'm afraid that the roach will stress her out, no?

[the ming cu]

I just got an offer of a male tarantula. I think I will try the breeding project. I've seen report of a successful breeding with the female only 7cm.. I think 9 cm is not a big problem. But the male do not want to eat anymore. He is already ultimate molt and his last molt is 11 June 2012. Is that a problem? Will he still be fertile? Anyway, I will give him a try...