Breeding

ShaunMot

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Is there a thread anywhere that tells me anything and everything about breeding tarantulas? I'm an experienced tarantula keeper, having never bred tarantulas, but wanting to.
 

ShaunMot

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I simply wouldn't know how to start. I know I have a fully mature female brachypelma albopilosum, which moulted about a month and a half ago, what would be the next stage?
 

KezyGLA

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Acquiring a freshly matured male Brachypelma albopilosum of the same form.

Pair around 6 months after the female moulted and after the male has made a sperm web.
 

ShaunMot

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Does the male HAVE to have made a sperm sack? what's the best way to get them to mate? what should I expect to happen, and what shouldn't happen?
 

EulersK

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The first step would be to not breed spiders whose slings you couldn't give away. Sorry man, but you'll never get rid of those 1000+ slings. Definitely look into breeding a more desirable spider.
 

EulersK

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Female:
Ensure sexual maturity by looking for spermatheca scleretization. That's about all you need for her aside from being very well fed.

Male:
Ensure he's made a sperm web. Take a bit of the female's webbing and put it in with him. Make sure they're both kept relatively warm, especially with winter upon us. Put their cages together for a few days to get those pheromones going. If you catch them tapping at each other, pair them immediately. You may not get another chance. If you introduce the male and both parties aren't tapping after awhile, then remove the male and try again later.
 

KezyGLA

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B. albos are apparently pretty easy to breed and dont need special requirements as such. Start feeding up male and female well before pairing and right before pairing.

You will need to make an incubator if you are going to be pulling the egg sac. @louise f has a link for her video to making one.

albos drop pretty big sacs it can be time consuming.

If your female makes a sac successfully, remove it after around 30 days then open up and carefully place contents into incubator.

someone else with better understanding of breeding this sp. can chime in and give more info.
 

EulersK

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I'll heed that advice, I had no idea it would produce that many
Yeah, sac sizes vary wildly between species. Some have 100 at most, others often exceed 2000. Definitely look at that as step #1 with any breeding project.
 

ShaunMot

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How difficult would a stromatopelma calceacum be to breed? egg sac size and complexity of the pairing? is it common for people who have the same tarantulas to meet up, or is it best off buying my own?
 

KezyGLA

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Some folks will exchange an MM for money,trade of split of slings. I have heard that S. calc is easy to breed too... but I would definately only be pairing them when someone else was present.
 

BobBarley

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How difficult would a stromatopelma calceacum be to breed? egg sac size and complexity of the pairing? is it common for people who have the same tarantulas to meet up, or is it best off buying my own?
If you're just starting breeding, I wouldn't start with one of those... Many times the male will jet out of the enclosure after the deed is done, and without breeding experience, you may not be expecting it. A bite from one of those is not fun as you know lol.

Roughly how long after mating will she produce an egg sac?
Agree with Eulers... for example, my female G. rosea was paired last year right around this time. She has yet to give me a sac, but she has certainly fattened up.
 

ShaunMot

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If you're just starting breeding, I wouldn't start with one of those... Many times the male will jet out of the enclosure after the deed is done, and without breeding experience, you may not be expecting it. A bite from one of those is not fun as you know lol.


Agree with Eulers... for example, my female G. rosea was paired last year right around this time. She has yet to give me a sac, but she has certainly fattened up.
Interesting. thanks for the info guys :)
 

Marijan2

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S. calcs are fairly easy to breed, BUT, be careful when removing male from enclosure. To be honest when i paired mine i kinda wished she chomped him down after pairing so i dont need to think about getting him out. My experience with breeding defensive arboreals tought me valuable lesson of removing males in the bathroom or clean room without furniture, since they will definitely bolt out immediately. Also, S. cals don't pair immediately(or at least major % of them). they will mate dance for hours and you have 2 options: be there for multiple hours and overlook them, or just let him stay overnight or few days if enclosure is big enough just like people do with pokies
 

cold blood

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To answer the question about sperm webs...yes, the MM will not be fertile until he has loaded his palps. While you rarely see this deed being done (I've managed to catch it twice), you will see evidence after. It looks like a thick(ish) line of webbing...like this.
 

BobBarley

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To answer the question about sperm webs...yes, the MM will not be fertile until he has loaded his palps. While you rarely see this deed being done (I've managed to catch it twice), you will see evidence after. It looks like a thick(ish) line of webbing...like this.
My rosea is not shy about it at all... Kinda weird lol but I've caught him in the act at least a dozen times.

Here's a vid I took of him (time-lapsed):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWAFStDoPq/?taken-by=spider_nerd
 

cold blood

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I agree with the others in that there are good and bad starting places. As mentioned, species that deliver monster size sacs are too overwhelming for a first time. You also want something desirable, and it shouldn't be something that the market is consistently flooded with like the LP, B. vagans, OBT or the B. albo, as cool of a species as they are, you want to be albo to move them in a timely fashion (even if its not for big profits). That said, if you were to breed the albopilosum, you do have the option of selling part of even all of the sac to a dealer (they may not want a whole sac, but there are several dealers to sell to). This option will yield quick cash, although a lot less of it than if you were to sell them yourself, but that's quite time consuming and never as quick as you expect or hope. You would still need to get them to 2i and feed them all before selling them.

I would advise not to start with old worlds personally, and I don't think S. cal is a good starting point...but in the future, there's no reason why you couldn't pair them down the line. When you do, talk to @Haksilence , he recently bred S. cals and I'd bet he would be willing to guide you through when the time comes.

I also would avoid ts that are notoriously difficult to breed, or are notoriously aggressive toward males (GBB). I started by pairing Avics, under the advice of a long time keeper, and in hindsight, it was an excellent decision. They pair readily, are typically not overly aggressive with one another, they don't have big sacs and everybody loves avics.

I've never done the female webbing put in with the male thing, but I do try to keep them near one another, and if I see tapping from the male, and the female is out and looking interested, I do jump at the chance and pair right then.

An important thing is to read their body language, if the male flees or freezes when she approaches or never taps, or if she doesn't seem receptive, but seems to be hunting (this is more obvious the more you see it), get him out and try at a later date.

Both male and female should also be well fed prior. I've never waited any certain amount of time after molting, but I do always make sure she's fattened up good, both so she doesn't see the male as a snack, and because a fatter t has more resources to put towards the sac.

Sometimes you can pair and not have the female drop a sac for over a year, other times they drop a sac 3-4 weeks later, its really pretty random and difficult to predict, but generally there's a lot of webbing going on prior to dropping a sac...again, it becomes more obvious the more you see it.

crap pic, but these are incei pairing.
 
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