Penultimate male? Adult Female? How to tell?

[fleshman]

Hi.
I have two questions:

1) How can you tell if your male tarantula is penultimate? I have a male B. albopilosum that, after his last molt, is starting to really "look like a male". He also spends most of his time wandering around his cage trying to get out. He is definitely not mature yet, but could he be nearing his final molt?

2) How can you tell if a female tarantula is adult and ready to breed? I recently received a female B. albopilosum, which I was told had just molted and was ready breed. She did look freshly molted when I got her, but she just molted again and it's only been maybe 3 months - seems kinda soon if she was really an adult... I could be totally wrong there, but my other adult T's only molt like once a year or something... HOW TO TELL??

THANKS,
Brandi

 

[Ariel]

I think its all pretty size dependant. If you have an adult sized male who's not mature you can assume he'll probably mature with his next molt. And for females I think if they're adult size or just under they're probably ready to breed. But, I do not have any experience with breeding, I am not an expert. I'm really just repeating what I remember from what I read.

 

[fleshman]

Thanks for the info