"Assisted" Tarantula Breeding.

SteveIDDQD

Arachnosquire
Joined
Dec 4, 2018
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71
So I was flicking through instagram last night, and I stumbled on an clip of someone "pinch holding" a female T in a vertical position while the male did his thing.

I'm now thinking, is this a good idea at all? Is it a regular thing breeders do (because the males are worth a lot to them)? If not, I'm thinking perhaps why not? Seems like a good way to make sure the job is done and no one gets eaten...

Just asking out of curiosity really, no intention of breeding any Ts myself, let alone while holding one of them!

(If the clip comes up again in my recommended list I'll save it and post a link)
 

ShyDragoness

Arachnobaron
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Jun 7, 2017
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369
I'd imagine one of the possible risks of this would actually be losing the female if the male attacked, which imo is a much more valuable loss than an MM
 

SteveIDDQD

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Dec 4, 2018
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71
I'd imagine one of the possible risks of this would actually be losing the female if the male attacked, which imo is a much more valuable loss than an MM
I didn't actually know there was any risk of the male attacking the female. Thought the little guys had only one thing on their mind...
 

Andrea82

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Jan 12, 2016
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I didn't actually know there was any risk of the male attacking the female. Thought the little guys had only one thing on their mind...
If the male is not quite ready it is certainly a possibility.
Kind of risky to pair spiders this way... Especially with OW. Although, for anyone trying to do this I think I wouldn't mind a little pinch in the finger by a Chilobrachys or something like that :vamp:
 

ShyDragoness

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Jun 7, 2017
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I didn't actually know there was any risk of the male attacking the female. Thought the little guys had only one thing on their mind...
Sometimes a male can have a food response if he wasn't anticipating the female or react aggressively. If they aren't ready to mate or sense something wrong(like the female not drumming back the right rythme because she's being held) he could also react aggressive or defensively
 

Brachyfan

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I have heard that this could happen if the male is much larger than the female as well. Anyone seen this?
 

Arachnophoric

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I think it'd throw a wrench into the flow of the courting process. The female will be stressed and upset, unable to respond to the males advances/tap back, puts the female at risk if the male gets defensive/has a food response, and puts your hand right in harm's way. I personally don't think I'd ever try it when I can just feed up the female and male as well as possible, introduce them and observe behaviors, and just remove the male if the female shows no interest or signs of aggression.

I have heard that this could happen if the male is much larger than the female as well. Anyone seen this?
Haven't seen a successful attempt, but iirc Exotics Lair had that happen with a pair of Brachypelma boehmei he was trying to breed and the decently larger male ended up injuring the female, which resulted in an abdomen rupture. He used superglue to close the injury and thankfully the female survived.
 

AphonopelmaTX

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I think it'd throw a wrench into the flow of the courting process. The female will be stressed and upset, unable to respond to the males advances/tap back, puts the female at risk if the male gets defensive/has a food response, and puts your hand right in harm's way. I personally don't think I'd ever try it when I can just feed up the female and male as well as possible, introduce them and observe behaviors, and just remove the male if the female shows no interest or signs of aggression.
I was thinking the same thing when reading through this post. The idea of forcing a female to breed disturbs me. By removing the courting process from the equation, one would have to guess at a female's readiness and receptiveness to reproduce and I don't think anyone can know that better than the spiders themselves.
 

Vanisher

Arachnoking
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Oct 2, 2004
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So I was flicking through instagram last night, and I stumbled on an clip of someone "pinch holding" a female T in a vertical position while the male did his thing.

I'm now thinking, is this a good idea at all? Is it a regular thing breeders do (because the males are worth a lot to them)? If not, I'm thinking perhaps why not? Seems like a good way to make sure the job is done and no one gets eaten...

Just asking out of curiosity really, no intention of breeding any Ts myself, let alone while holding one of them!

(If the clip comes up again in my recommended list I'll save it and post a link)
This seems like a very bad idea. Imagine if a human was "held" in place by some giant during lovemaking! In our way of thinking, this would be raping.
But over to tarantulas. Breeding should occur on their turns. I cant say this method is a guarantied fail, but as i said, i think its a bad idea. The female may suddenky twich and try to escape and this procedeur may hurt her?
Done right, mating is a pretty simple deal, and few breedings goes wrong IME. I suggest you do proper research on breeding instead of doing what you suggest
 
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