Why do my millipedes keep dying?

[Nymeri85]

I am a fairly new millipede owner and for a while they were doing great and then one of my scarlets died. It was laying on the surface not really moving much for a few days so I moved it to a different container in case something was wrong with it. After about two weeks it died. Then a few days later one of my ivories died within basically overnight. It was fine and then all of the sudden it wasn't.

Now my other scarlet is acting like the first one and my other ivory died the same way my first one did. I am not sure why they keep dying. I changed out the substrate maybe two weeks ago. It's moist but not too moist. I've got plenty of leaf litter.

I am not sure why they keep dying unless all of them just so happened to be old. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions So I might be able to keep my two bumblebees alive?

 

[cecdog]

I'm new to it too, but in my experience wild caught ones die more quickly than captive bred. They might have been near the end of their time anyway. I buy substrate online for 18 bucks which gets me 3 pounds of substrate and some extras. It smells so fresh and looks so nutritious, it's the only thing I buy for my pedes. If you are that desperate, I would check out some online retailers for millipede substrate.

 

[Nymeri85]

From what I know the pedes were captive bred. I got them at a repticon or herps, one of those shows I can't recall which. I get my substrate from BugsinCyberspace :/ I didn't see any mold or anything in it and I've been checking everyday, looking closely at it and smelling for anything. I really hope my bumblebees stay well. I'm truly hoping they were just at the end of their time.

 

[cecdog]

Yea same here, isn't it great substrate? It sounds like you are on top of it, I have a little water cup next to a side heat mat that keeps it nice and humid, I noticed mine became much more active after that. I only have one bumblebee though, and I very rarely see him. I've read that BB's stay underground most often so resist the urge to check on them! Lol you probably know that already, please keep us updated..

 

[Nymeri85]

I will definitely keep y'all updated! I'm thinking maybe I'm going to watch the bumblebees for a while and then maybe order some more ivories and hope they don't suffer the same fate...

 

[Polenth]

Do you have pictures of the enclosure? What is your usual care routine? What do you feed them? How long have you had them? What's the temperature in the room? Was the substrate change the point when they started dying? Was there a problem that made you change the substrate? The more information you can provide, the more likely it is someone can help.