Separating baby millipedes from adults

[Catherine31]

Hi all! Can anyone tell me if it is okay to start separating my baby Scarlets from the adults and putting them into their own enclosure? They are between 4-6 weeks old. They still don’t need the adults right? Although I have caught babies laying on top of an adult or curled up next to an adult. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[BuzzSwole]

I don’t know till what age but the babies do need their parents poop.

 

[Catherine31]

I don’t know till what age but the babies do need their parents poop.

Oh snap!! I forgot about that! Thank you!

 

[BuzzSwole]

Also I see no reason to separate them till they’re juveniles, unless it’s a communal setup

 

[Catherine31]

Well, the only reason I was going to separate them was because of space. I have 1 BumbleBee, 4 adult scarlets and then the babies in one enclosure. I guess I can either get a bigger tank or get another smaller one and rehouse the BumbleBee and 2 of the scarlets. The enclosure they are all in is 11x7x7 with substrate ranging from 3in in some areas and 5 in in others. So you think that is big enough for now?

 

[BuzzSwole]

Just do top layer substrate change more regularly (be careful) and always leave some poop in there for them

 

[Catherine31]

Just do top layer substrate change more regularly (be careful) and always leave some poop in there for them

Ok thanks! Everything takes so much longer now. I just took out remaining cucumber slices because they were starting to get mushy and I don’t want to get gnats. I spent 20 minutes carefully looking at the ones I took out to get the babies off. They are so tiny!

 

[SDCPs]

If you're concerned about including parent feces in the new enclosure...just transfer some of the old substrate with them to the pling enclosure. Like even half and half. I would have no problem at all separating them! When I changed substrate I collected all the millipedes out of the old...which resulted in some of the old coming along for the ride, and placed in the new. Substrate that's too exhausted can kill millipedes as well. Lost like 8 adult Philippine blue millipedes plus a number of other exotics in a large terrarium once. And less valuable species numerous times as a result.

 

[davehuth]

The exoskeltons on such tiny pedelings can be tender, so I don't move mine around with my hands. I use a lightweight plastic spoon and carefully (carefully!) scoop around them and lift them out with a tiny bit of substrate. If you do this, you have to be careful to not stab the spoon deeply into the sub in case there's another small millipede underneath. I find that my fingers are too large and clumsy to pick them up safely.