My Orthoporus ornatus

[mickiem]

These are some of my happy Oo’s. I’ve had them for a month or more. When they came, they were super heavy. You know how you pick a good melon - that’s how you should choose your millipedes. I was hoping I could keep that weight and health. Probably due to the equally awesome natural desert substrate, they are still fat and sassy. Now, how to convince them to breed?

 

[mickiem]

@DubiaW Everyone is doing great! I really like this substrate. How deep do you find them? I have them in a 24"X14" enclosure with 6-7" substrate. I am thinking of moving them to a much larger (40X18") enclosure and increasing depth. I have read they sometimes bask on rocks. I am thinking about putting a 25W spot on them for 2 hours a day. When is the natural rainy season? Thanks again for everything and now I need to get serious....

 

[DubiaW]

I have about 6-7" of substrate in a large rubbermaid tote. I never dig into the substrate because I don't want to disturb any that are molting (but I have a lot). In the wild they are supposed to dig meters under the ground so they would probably like it is deep as you want to make it. They are often out in the daytime and I think they would appreciate the option of a hot area (maybe 90°F). The rainy season usually starts in late june early july and lasts for about a month (this is the monsoon season). August is often hot and dry and then a Sept can sometimes produce a second rainy season but not always. Around here people often refer to a summer thunderstorm as a monsoon but technically the monsoon occurs when the humidity stays above 50% for an extended period of time (when this happens clouds can materialize out of thin air and become massive thunderstorms in a matter of hours). My favorite time of year!

 

[mickiem]

I remembered the roads being washed out in February in New Mexico but wasn't sure if that was the rainy season. But those pop up storms can be pretty intense.

Ok, I'll make them deeper. I wonder if that has anything to do with breeding? Meters?! Yikes. What time of year do you see pedelings? I will have to figure out how to safely rig a spot light on them. My cat would be right in the tub with them or possibly knock the light off.

I've been watching them a lot; they are pretty active.

 

[DubiaW]

This year I started seeing them in August. I am assuming they breed in June July.

 

[mickiem]

I'm just going to keep them healthy and fatten them up some more! I think I will put them in the deeper box in February and will start misting them daily in May. With the spot light most will evaporate. I will get them into about 2' of substrate. (I'll need a lot more substrate!) I've got a lot of company coming the first week in December; I'll order after that.

Anyway, how does this sound? When I saw my AGBs starting to breed, I put a handful of leaves in daily for them. I think that kept them amorous. And that reminds me - since Oo's are spirostreptids, I would think they would eat more leaves. Do you ever see an abundance of any kind of leaf around them?

 

[DubiaW]

They eat dried creosote leaves a lot. There are plenty in the substrate. If you want just those let me know. I'm going to be gathering and drying out the different weeds that I see them eating next summer too. I haven't seen them eating mesquite leaves in the wild yet but they eat them in captivity for sure so they probably do. They really like dried cactus blooms as well. I will be making up mixed feed bags with all of that. There is one weed that I have seen them eating while it is still green but I don't know what species it is.

 

[mickiem]

Ok! I'll get an order ready. I'll try some beet greens and romaine and see if they like that.

 

[davehuth]

They eat dried creosote leaves a lot. There are plenty in the substrate. If you want just those let me know. I'm going to be gathering and drying out the different weeds that I see them eating next summer too. I haven't seen them eating mesquite leaves in the wild yet but they eat them in captivity for sure so they probably do. They really like dried cactus blooms as well. I will be making up mixed feed bags with all of that. There is one weed that I have seen them eating while it is still green but I don't know what species it is.

I'm so glad I stumbled on this thread! My Orthoporus (several colors, I can't really tell ornatus from texacolens but might have both...) are the stars of my large communal enclosure. They're active climbers and appear healthy, they alternately bask a few days and then burrow a few days in deep substrate (which includes oak leaves), and give lots of attention to supplemental fruits/veggies/kibble. @DubiaW if you ever have some local natural leaves for sale that they like (I'm in western NY) I'd appreciate you dropping me a note. Thanks!

 

[davehuth]

Sorry for the bad picture... Last night on a whim (because I had an old bag of them sitting aorund) I set out some aquarium algae wafers wondering if the roaches would be interested in them, and my pretty yellow Os went bonkers for 'em