Final Tips For Millipedes?

[Karl Parker]

So I finally sorted out a faunarium and substrate to keep the millipedes I'm going to be getting however I'm a little worried about the temperature. My houses temp doesn't stay consistent to say the least and I'm worried the temperature changes won't be very good for them (sometimes even I can feel the cold in my feet) so was wondering if I bought just a basic pet heat pad with the adjustable gauge and put it next to the faunarium (not on it just next to it) would that be enough for them on colder days?

Also aside from the substrate (I've got cocoa fiber and some orchid bark to mix into it, possibly 70-30 cocoa/bark) and the obvious misting bottle and cuttlefish bone anything else I should be getting? Also would mixing a small amount of calcium powder into the substrate be ok or should I keep that a separate thing?

 

[NukaMedia Exotics]

I think if you'd use the heating pad at least put the faunarium in another glass tank with the heating pad on that. Also its coco fiber as in coconut not cocoa as in chocolate.

 

[LawnShrimp]

The substrate should be 25-50% rotting wood/leaves especially for the species you are buying. D. macracanthus, like most spirostreptids, eats primarily wood. The cocofiber and orchid bark sound good.

Use heating pads very sparingly and only bump up the temperature by a few degrees even when it is quite cold. Most millis are surprisingly cold-hardy and don't need the constant heat reptiles or some inverts do. In fact, it is much easier to overheat even big tropical species than it is to chill them.

 

[Greasylake]

I got a space heater so I could warm all my animals and myself at the same time, I've found that to be the most convenient way to control temperature and I know there's some other people around here that agree. As for fluctuating temperatures, think about it. In the wild temperatures are never constant and can fluctuate quite significantly, so consistency shouldn't be the main concern.

 

[Karl Parker]

Thank you for the replies I'm always worried bout temperature but that probably does come from my days of keeping reptiles so thank you for putting my mind at ease with that.

I'll be getting some leaves to add to the mix because I know that's also a primary source of food for them and someone told me that Tonkinbolus dollfusi also enjoys mushrooms so was going to buy some every so often as a treat for them.