One of my H.Petersii gave birth on July 6 so it’s been about 10 days since. It was tough to count how many but looks more then fifteen babies. As of right now most of them are starting to climb off her back but I cant tell if they molted yet. She dug a deep burrow and in order to separate them I’d have to dig the mother and babies out. She has been well fed the last 10 days so I don’t think she will eat the ones that have already climbed off. I am able to glimpse a little inside the burrow entrance when she isn’t blocking it. I thought after the scorplings climb off her back and molt they would be more brownish in color. They aren’t white like when they were first born but more of a dirty beige color at the moment. After the rest of them are off her is it still safe to remove them or should I wait till their exoskeleton hardens more? What color should they be when it’s time to separate them from the mother?
H. Petersii baby question
- Thread starter MiaPow
- Start date
Albireo Wulfbooper
Arachnoprince
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2019
- Messages
- 1,606
There's no rush. H. petersii can stay together with the mother for a good while, given enough space and food. When I got my 3 babies (which I still keep communally), they were almost exactly one month old, and were sort of a caramel brown, not particularly dark. It took another moult or two for them to get really dark.
Dr SkyTower
Arachnolord
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2019
- Messages
- 660
I agree with Albireo! The babies can stay with their mother even when they come off her back and as long as there is enough room and food they'll do quite well together. They're not glossy black at their young instars, the brown colour is quite normal.
Thanks for responding but I was in panic mode and already removed them from the mother before I got any responses. I do regret it because she was taking such good care of them. After they crawled of her back I tried to feed her again in case she was hungry I didn’t want her eating the babies, because she really wasn’t eating well, she would kill any prey item offered and just give it to her babies. Right before I recovered the babies I tried feeding her again but she wanted nothing to do with food and just kept giving it to the babies to eat. The next time one of my other female H.Petersii have babies I’ll definitely keep them with the mother longer. Another thing I observed after the babies crawled off her back and before I removed them was she excavated a second chamber deeper in her burrow. Not sure if this was intended for her offsprings but they took advantage of it and congregated inside.