Millipede not eating

[KimJongFun]

Hello, I have an archospireptus gigas, and for the past month he has barely moved, he ate a bit of lettuce last week but apart from that zero effort in eating.
I don't think he is sick as every few hours he changes position and I see him "groom himself" or clean himself either way.
Any ideas? Is he molting?

Cheers

 

[MadMilli]

Hello, I have an archospireptus gigas, and for the past month he has barely moved, he ate a bit of lettuce last week but apart from that zero effort in eating.
I don't think he is sick as every few hours he changes position and I see him "groom himself" or clean himself either way.
Any ideas? Is he molting?

Cheers

What is your substrate made of? How old is he? Do you provide decaying deciduous leaves on the surface for consumption? Sorry for all of the questions but the answers to these might help clear up any problems.

 

[KimJongFun]

What is your substrate made of? How old is he? Do you provide decaying deciduous leaves on the surface for consumption? Sorry for all of the questions but the answers to these might help clear up any problems.

No probs

Currently its only coconut fiber (he doesn't like it much). The millipede used to be in a larger terrarium with sterilized compost as the substrate (the millipede had been there for about 8 months), but the glass was damaged and can't get a replacement yet due to covid. (Glaziers and window stores are shut in my area currently).

I'm not sure how old he is, I got him from a local pet store (I suspect the place is a bit dodgy). However he is about 21cm long last time I measured him, for what I've read he can still grow a bit more.
In 8 months he hasn't molted.
Also, I haven't given him deciduous leaves recently, only a bit of lettuce, apple or pepper. (Usually he is ravenous for the latter 2).

Hopefully this helps.

 

[MadMilli]

No probs

Currently its only coconut fiber (he doesn't like it much). The millipede used to be in a larger terrarium with sterilized compost as the substrate (the millipede had been there for about 8 months), but the glass was damaged and can't get a replacement yet due to covid. (Glaziers and window stores are shut in my area currently).

I'm not sure how old he is, I got him from a local pet store (I suspect the place is a bit dodgy). However he is about 21cm long last time I measured him, for what I've read he can still grow a bit more.
In 8 months he hasn't molted.
Also, I haven't given him deciduous leaves recently, only a bit of lettuce, apple or pepper. (Usually he is ravenous for the latter 2).

Hopefully this helps.

A. gigas require constant access to leaf litter, preferably decaying oak leaves, to molt correctly. Premature deaths aren’t uncommon without the proper nutrition. Coconut fiber is good for humidity and burrowing, but fails to provide much of any nutrients at all to your millipede. I would highly suggest finding a rotten log where you can chunk off the wood by hand (the wood is soft from rotting) and then bake it at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Once it cools you can mix this in with your substrate and add it to the surface level as well. I would also try to find some brown, decaying oak leaves and bake them the same way as I said above. You can use the finer leaf particles to mix in with the coconut fiber / wood substrate mix so you have something more nutritionally balanced. Then add the larger leaves to the surface so the substrate holds humidity properly. Unlike some other species of millipede, A. gigas will not survive for a prolonged period of time on supplemental foods by itself. If you can find an old rotting stump, you can usually dig around the edges or under leaf litter to find some rich dirt with decaying roots mixed in. You can bake this as well and add it to your substrate mix. In the end, your substrate should look like this:

Fine pieces of decayed wood, fine pieces of leaves, roots and rich dirt from compost area (under leaf litter), and a portion of your coconut fiber mixed together. Anything that comes from outside should be sterilized by baking in the oven to remove pests and you should make sure it doesn’t come from an area at risk of pesticide use.

A few notes to add as well. Leaves, while acting as a main food source for your millipede, are instrumental objects to maintain damp spots in your enclosure for your millipede to retreat to. This will help to encourage molting behavior and normal activities. I would also like to mention that lettuce, especially iceberg lettuce, serves little to no purpose nutritionally for millipedes. Even tortoises aren’t supposed to eat iceberg lettuce, given its lack of nutrition.

I hope all of this information helps! Don’t let it overwhelm you and just try to chip away at each part one at a time to fix some of the issues that are there.

 

[Arthroverts]

I am somewhat surprised at how long your specimen has survived already on just coco fiber, which has zero nutritional value, and explains it's lack of appetite ("Millipedes shall not live by veggies alone..."). Check out the following links for what a proper millipede substrate entails:

Cavedweller's Basic Millipede Caresheet

Cavedweller’s Millipede Basics Care tips are generalized and may vary by species. Last updated 05-21-14 Introduction: Millipedes are slow moving, peaceful detritivores, organisms that eat dead plant matter and turn it into soil. They are not insects, but rather of the class Diplopoda...

arachnoboards.com

My Very Fussy MILLIPEDE Substrate

I have been mixing my own substrate and changing it a little each batch to improve it. This is the mix I have been happy with for a year or so. It seems fussy with all the rinsing, baking etc., but my losses are almost 0 and all but 1 mature species have produced pedelings (I most likely had...

arachnoboards.com

How to Care for Pet Millipedes

Husbandry suggestions and advice.

petmillipede.weebly.com

Once rotting hardwood/rotting hardwood leaves are in the enclosure and the substrate is correct, you should see a large uptick in the consumption of food, both required and supplemental.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[KimJongFun]

Update from my millipede (Sancho), after a week from the new substrate I added, (decomposed wood and soil) from a local woodlands, he is way more active, I hear him strolling around the terrarium every night. He is definitely eating a lot more than last time as he's left his signature poops everywhere.

My one concern is that from the soil substrate I added (which I sterilized at 150 C or 302 F for 2 hours), has a white fungus infestation. All the leaves have white bushy markings. So far I've removed most of the leaf litter.
Its possible there may be too much humidity in the surface.

*Cheers for the info by the way, Sancho has loved your recommendations

 

[Arthroverts]

Update from my millipede (Sancho), after a week from the new substrate I added, (decomposed wood and soil) from a local woodlands, he is way more active, I hear him strolling around the terrarium every night. He is definitely eating a lot more than last time as he's left his signature poops everywhere.

My one concern is that from the soil substrate I added (which I sterilized at 150 C or 302 F for 2 hours), has a white fungus infestation. All the leaves have white bushy markings. So far I've removed most of the leaf litter.
Its possible there may be too much humidity in the surface.

*Cheers for the info by the way, Sancho has loved your recommendations

This usually happens when you actually sterilize the leaves, which you don't want. You rather want to "pasteurize" (not the most applicable term but it remains the one used) the leaves and kill whatever pests might be hiding in it, but not wipe out the bacterial and fungal populations on the leaves. If you bake the leaves at high(er) temperatures for a longer length of time, the chance of you wiping out the above populations increases, and once this is done the now-sterilized leaves act as a clean slate for new, undesirable fungi to suddenly take over.
That said the white fungi is relatively harmless and will eventually go away as long as it doesn't cover everything, especially if springtails are added to the enclosure.

For future reference I would recommend only baking the leaves (and any wood) at no more than 93.3C/200F for 30-60 minutes at most.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[KimJongFun]

Epic, cheers man. I few weeks ago I removed the leaves and the little fungus that remained after disappeared after a few days, Sancho probably ate it, or it decayed.