Feeding Males to Females (Read First, then Vote)

[ShadowBlade]

Well, no would kinda be the logical answer because, males don't just tell you they're about to die, or its their last go.. So after the male mates, either-

A: He books it away, female may try to kill him and fails, you take the male out. (i.e. he probably has enough strength to do it again).

B: He's sluggish, and after mating the female attacks him, and its far too great a risk to poke the female off him, I just let her eat him.

Basically once I've mated him to all my females of the species, its up to him, he either makes it, or he doesn't. But if its a rather rare species, I'll work hard to protect the male to send off to others.

So.. it all kinda depends. But if its a moral question.. I feel no remorse for letting the male have a quick death, as opposed to dehydrating, starving, and falling apart.

-Sean

 

[AubZ]

Question is, Aubz - How would you know it was his last pomp?...:?

Hehe, SA humor. I love it. There would be no real way of knowing, but if he is hitting nearly a year you can assume. It's more to do with you know the male is not going to mate again, so do you let him die on his own or get eaten and start filling the fem.

Like I said earlier I have a G rosea RCF, and also a L parahybana Mature Males and they have been with me over a year. I would never allow them to get eaten as I have grown very fond of them. However the P regalis I got was already Mature and was bought to breed with my Female. The other aspect that led to me leaving him in there was the fact that everytime I heard the tapping and looked, he just kept running away. I never actually saw them mate. If I had, then I would have removed him. I was going to try Ryans advise and take the lid off and see if he would take her out and mate with her then, but never got the chance. I really thought that he would stay in there longer as they were right next to each other before and she never tried to eat him. I also kept feeding the crics to keep him as long as possible. I think the Female got tired of his games by getting her all hot & ready, then running away.

Anyway, I also got a mate that left his P irminia male with his fem to get eaten and that is what sparked the idea for the thread. He still told me they were living together and I must check it out. When I looked, I saw she had nearly finished him.

 

[Scott C.]

I voted no, because I won't feed a T to another regardless the situation.

I don't feel bad about the female eating him though, unless he is scheduled to go somewhere.... I've had some males that I felt it better to just let cohab with the females. Some of 'em were killed, others did the old wither away deal right there.... I suppose I'd feel bad if she was prompted to eat him because she was hungry, but that's negligence, and different.

 

[Nokturnal1980]

After reading this thread twice I had to vote no. I just have this emotional tie to all my animals. I admit I am not a breeder but I do not think I could do it.

 

[357wheelgunner]

I think that being injected with venom from another creature is just as natural a death as wandering around aimlessly starving, but the venom is probably less cruel then letting it starve.

Death by lethal injection is far more humane than death by starvation. There's not an ounce of logic that can be used to argue against feeding a mature male to a female, after mating.

For the "beloved pet" argument...I guess people can have emotional attachments to anything, but loving a bug is as silly as having an emotional attachment to a toaster oven. FYI, if it were big enough, your "beloved pet" would eat you. I enjoy my inverts, they're extremely interesting and entertaining, but I don't kid myself for one second into thinking that they care about me one bit, and I won't allow myself to get attached to anything that can't do tricks or follow simple commands.

 

[ragingcobalt]

Fight Fight Fight!!

Hell ya man let nature take its course plus it would be cool to watch.

 

[tima]

Interesting how things are so split down the middle. I have to say that, while I wouldn't intentionally drop him in there to get et, I wouldn't have a problem with letting them live together, until nature ran its course. I tried to do this with a pair of L. parahybana once, but the male kept escaping (he was quite the houdini, that one), and ended up getting given away.

 

[betuana]

Its up to the T...

I'd say no, I wouldn't intentionally feed the male to the female...

That said, I'd have to agree with the idea that its kinda up to him.

If he has the strength, speed, reaction time, agility etc to get away from her safely after doing his thing, then he got away. In the wild he'd have moved on - he wouldn't be trapped next to her burrow until she decided to dispatch him.

If however he doesn't manage to get away and she gets him, then she gets him - he wasn't fast enugh, agile enough, etc, and it may be his time. In nature, she'd have chomped him, so thats just how it work...

Obviously if it was a particularly rare type of T then I might try to step in and preserve him if possible to try and give him the chance to breed more females, but it might depend on his age at that point and if I thought he was approaching death/molt, etc.

I kinda take my view from the ethics that were given me for hunting rabbits with hawks - if the hawk catches the rabbit then its a fair catch. If the rabbit gets to its hole underground then the rabbit wins - don't go chasing it out, let it be. After all, in that case it would indicate a stronger, healthier individual who should be allowed to breed so that the population continues (giving you more to hunt later!).

Its not quite the same with T's, but I look at it similarly - if he gets away then he should be allowed to get away (and put back in his enclosure), and if he doesn't then the doesn't.

But I'm a total newbie - so I can only speak on speculation, not any actual experience I have!

 

[Rich65]

My question is this, Is a female who is given a dyeing male to eat, more likelt to eat the next male she is bred to?
I have successfully bred my females and removed the males with no problem, but I have not left the males in for any length of time. It seems that males left for extended periods wind up as a meal.

 

[jshadowstalker]

it really depends on the mating, sometimes the pair get after it right away and then break apart fast.i have had a few ocasions the female was hesiatent to mate so i left them together for a while and returned to see her eating him. i guess i would not feed him to her on purpose.

 

[AubZ]

@ Tima - I was also pretty surprised that it is split down the middle. I would also not drop him in to get eaten intentionally. And if I see a good insertion, then I would take him out.

I guess it also depends on the T, as so far I can say that I would only do it with Aboreals as they have more space to get away. My male constantly ran away from the female, so I am hoping that he got eaten cuz she mated with him or he was willing to get eaten. I have her in a Exo Terra enclosure so there was more than enough space for them both in there.

 

[samsbugs]

NO, I had a MM GBB that was sure to die hardly able to move. I tried a pairing anyway, and guess what, I got a very nice sack with his (last motiation) when he was put in with the female he came alive and managed to get to all 3 of my females, only 1 droped a sack.