my first buggie

[HimitSumi]

hi everyone!

I recently ordered one Orthoporus ornatus specimen and it will be the first terrestrial bug I've decided to keep as a pet (if you exclude all the grasshoppers and worms I found and secretly kept in my bedroom as a child).

I've kept many reptiles and amphibians before, now I'm just keeping fish. I'm pretty familiar with keeping exotics but I still greatly underestimated the specificity that goes into the enclosure for keeping millipedes. I decided I wanted a millipede so I marched into petco and grabbed a kritter keeper, some eco earth, and a super shallow water/food dish and thought I would be set. Fortunately I'm compelled to research the heck out of any new animal I get so I got my kritter keeper home, started googling, and quickly found this site.

This forum was so incredible helpful. I realized my enclosure was missing rotting wood and leaf litter, probably the most important aspects of the millipede enclosure. Unfortunately I live in the rockies where 19/20 trees are pine and any oak I'm able to find is going to be in someone's backyard. I decided to order the three pounds of the composite millipede substrate from bugsincyberspace and I ordered a big bunch of clean dried oak leaves as well. I plan on mixing this all together with a small amount of the eco earth (coconut coir) I've already purchased. I also figure the kritter keeper was a happy mistake since it seems Orthoporus ornatus prefers to have higher ventilation in the enclosure. I bought a small piece of cork bark as a hiding spot and a very small heating pad I imagine I'll have to use in the colder months as I live in the far north and my apartment does not have central heating.

I think that's about all I have to say. Please let me know if you think the setup I have sounds like it's going to serve me well or if there's anything you think I should change before my millipede actually gets to me. Also any and all advice for keeping my specific millipede alive and healthy would be excellent, I'm a little worried I'll end up killing it immediately after I get it.

 

[MadMilli]

Hey there!

I do not know much about your particular species, but I am quite familiar with tropical species of millipede. Ventilation is often times what kills them due to the loss of humidity. With a desert species of millipede, I would figure that enclosure is perfectly fine. A little mist as needed, keep the top moist but not enough that it’s going to leave any water marks on a paper towel. Do not underestimate the need for humidity. Just because it is a desert specimen doesn’t mean dry, it just means warmer. Someone else on here could say otherwise, but some sources have even claimed that opening your millipede tank a few times a week is enough ventilation for them without holes or anything. This varies species to species. If you have any general questions, I can definitely help.

 

[HimitSumi]

Thanks! I will definitely make sure to keep moisture levels up despite the ventilation. I've thought about hot gluing a piece of plexiglass up inside of the lid if maintaining moisture ever becomes a huge issue.

 

[MadMilli]

Thanks! I will definitely make sure to keep moisture levels up despite the ventilation. I've thought about hot gluing a piece of plexiglass up inside of the lid if maintaining moisture ever becomes a huge issue.

You can also tightly press plastic wrap on the OUTSIDE of the lid and use some electrical tape to fasten it. I would personally not put anything inside, as I worry about having outside chemicals being in the living space of the millipedes. I am pretty sure some people on here would agree with me, adhesives of any kind are just best to avoid on the inside. That being said, hot gluing would be the best option if you had to do it inside but the plastic wrap + electrical tape on the outside of the lid might be a better conservative option to roll with.

 

[HimitSumi]

Thought of another question today. Do you guys use distilled water to mist your enclosures? As I'm only having one bug enclosure for now and keeping it on my desk I'd like for it to stay looking relatively nice. I have hard water where I live so was thinking I should use distilled water for misting to keep water stains down. Do you use tap water in dishes/misters? Treated tap water to remove chlorine/chloramines? I keep fish so I have plenty of water conditioner on hand. It works great for all my fish/aquatic inverts so I assume it should be perfectly fine for terrestrial inverts too.

 

[MadMilli]

Thought of another question today. Do you guys use distilled water to mist your enclosures? As I'm only having one bug enclosure for now and keeping it on my desk I'd like for it to stay looking relatively nice. I have hard water where I live so was thinking I should use distilled water for misting to keep water stains down. Do you use tap water in dishes/misters? Treated tap water to remove chlorine/chloramines? I keep fish so I have plenty of water conditioner on hand. It works great for all my fish/aquatic inverts so I assume it should be perfectly fine for terrestrial inverts too.

Distilled all day. Others may argue, but distilled is the safest and only way.

 

[HimitSumi]

The millipedes are here! The seller gave me an extra they’re so cool

 

[HimitSumi]

I placed the millipedes in the enclosure which has lots of substrate and places to hide beneath cork bark and cholla. The little millipede hid under the cork bark right away while the large millipede wandered around the enclosure for quite a while before deciding to curl up in the little food bowl with some greens

 

[7Fin]

Those are some beautiful specimens!

 

[VolkswagenBug]

Thought of another question today. Do you guys use distilled water to mist your enclosures? As I'm only having one bug enclosure for now and keeping it on my desk I'd like for it to stay looking relatively nice. I have hard water where I live so was thinking I should use distilled water for misting to keep water stains down. Do you use tap water in dishes/misters? Treated tap water to remove chlorine/chloramines? I keep fish so I have plenty of water conditioner on hand. It works great for all my fish/aquatic inverts so I assume it should be perfectly fine for terrestrial inverts too.

Distilled water, definitely. There are some inverts that are a bit more tolerant of nondistilled, but millipedes are super finicky and you'll want distilled.

The setup sounds fine for Orthoporus so far -- just don't put any non-Orthoporus millipedes in there, as the ventilation is excessive for most. Also don't put the heating pad on the bottom of the cage, because that dries out the substrate and can kill the millipede.

 

[maxpede]

Distilled water, definitely. There are some inverts that are a bit more tolerant of nondistilled, but millipedes are super finicky and you'll want distilled.

The setup sounds fine for Orthoporus so far -- just don't put any non-Orthoporus millipedes in there, as the ventilation is excessive for most. Also don't put the heating pad on the bottom of the cage, because that dries out the substrate and can kill the millipede.

distilled water keeps everyone happy. millipedes like it and we like looking at them