Help! Anyone with experience on breeding tarantulas?

[TechnoGeek]

Ok, so I'll cut right to the chase, stars of the show:

Ivar the boneless:

Bella the classy:

Mission is to make sure they mate successfully and Ivar walks away in one piece. I have been keeping tarantula for some time now but I've never thought about breeding them before. What should I watch for to tell if the male is ready? I'm gonna keep a pair of tweezers inches away from them to interfere if need be. Anything you guys can tell me will be most appreciated.

 

[moricollins]

Ok, so I'll cut right to the chase, stars of the show:

Ivar the boneless:

Bella the classy:

Mission is to make sure they mate successfully and Ivar walks away in one piece. I have been keeping tarantula for some time now but I've never thought about breeding them before. What should I watch for to tell if the male is ready? I'm gonna keep a pair of tweezers inches away from them to interfere if need be. Anything you guys can tell me will be most appreciated.

Has he made a sperm web?

 

[TechnoGeek]

Has he made a sperm web?

I only received him 2 days ago so I don't think so. Can you please show me what a sperm web looks like?

 

[Nightstalker47]

Well for starters, your male isn't mature, if you try pairing now she will just eat him.

Look up mature male to see the difference.

 

[TechnoGeek]

Well for starters, your male isn't mature, if you try pairing now she will just eat him.

Look up mature male to see the difference.

Are we sure? I'll have to take a macro today and check if he's got the boxing gloves but he's pushing past 5 inches legspan

 

[Colorado Ts]

I only received him 2 days ago so I don't think so. Can you please show me what a sperm web looks like?

Aphonopelma hentzi male.

You either want to see the male in a sperm web, or you want to see evidence of a sperm web.

How big is the male?



Male Aphonopelma hentzi collecting semen.

 

[TechnoGeek]

View attachment 349052

Aphonopelma hentzi male.

You either want to see the male in a sperm web, or you want to see evidence of a sperm web.

Major thanks! I'll watch for that!!

 

[PidderPeets]

Here's a decent shot of a sperm web, palpal bulbs, and blurry shot of hooks. All things you should look for. When they're done with the web and they tear it down, it looks like a thin strand of thick webbing



I'm in agreement that it doesn't look quite mature to me.

 

[moricollins]

My bad, I hadn't actually looked at the pictures. If that's a mature male them that's the fattest mature male I've ever seen. They tend to be much skinnier than the tarantula in that picture.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Grammostola pulchripes

Have not bred this species, yet. It is noted as a not to difficult species to mate. This is a species that I will try to mate in the future. So everything in this post is based on notes taken from discussions with breeders, details gathered from successful breeding reports, or notes that I’ve gathered from discussions on breeding similar or related species.

Beginning 30 days +/- from the female’s last moult. Put the male enclosure next to the females enclosure...if the ventilation holes overlap with each other...so much the better.

Once you see evidence of the male spider producing a sperm web, begin misting the female’s enclosure each day. The misting can be done in the morning or evening, but mist the enclosure once each day.

After 7-10 days of misting, feed the female a normal meal once each day until she refuses food. Feed normal portions, and continue misting once each day.

Once the female is refusing food, introduce the male to the female. If the male has produced a sperm web and the female is receptive there should be positive activity. You are looking for a good solid insertion from the male. Some breeders will stop with a good visible insertion, others will rotate in another male for another breeding attempt...up to 3 males. Still continue misting once a day.

Once breeding attempts are completed, you can stop misting each day. Drop back to a normal feeding routine...and patiently wait.

The female may go through a period where she refuses food for an extended period. The female may isolate herself into her burrow; and start building a web-enclosure, around herself. If you see this, then you should have an egg sac sometime in the next 12 hours.

 

[Chebe6886]

Grammostola pulchripes

Have not bred this species, yet. It is noted as a not to difficult species to mate. This is a species that I will try to mate in the future. So everything in this post is based on notes taken from discussions with breeders, details gathered from successful breeding reports, or notes that I’ve gathered from discussions on breeding similar or related species.

Beginning 30 days +/- from the female’s last moult. Put the male enclosure next to the females enclosure...if the ventilation holes overlap with each other...so much the better.

Once you see evidence of the male spider producing a sperm web, begin misting the female’s enclosure each day. The misting can be done in the morning or evening, but mist the enclosure once each day.

After 7-10 days of misting, feed the female a normal meal once each day until she refuses food. Feed normal portions, and continue misting once each day.

Once the female is refusing food, introduce the male to the female. If the male has produced a sperm web and the female is receptive there should be positive activity. You are looking for a good solid insertion from the male. Some breeders will stop with a good visible insertion, others will rotate in another male for another breeding attempt...up to 3 males. Still continue misting once a day.

Once breeding attempts are completed, you can stop misting each day. Drop back to a normal feeding routine...and patiently wait.

The female may go through a period where she refuses food for an extended period. The female may isolate herself into her burrow; and start building a web-enclosure, around herself. If you see this, then you should have an egg sac sometime in the next 12 hours.

What’s the constant misting provide to the scenario? I would think If she’s well fed and has water access she should be plenty hydrated

 

[Colorado Ts]

What’s the constant misting provide to the scenario? I would think If she’s well fed and has water access she should be plenty hydrated

Based on my research, there are two times of the year that Spiders will typically mate; Spring & Fall. Spiders that mate in the spring, will produce egg sacs in early summer. Spiders that mate in the fall go through a cool down period during the winter months, and produce the egg sac the following spring. The cool down period can be triggered by an ambient temperature drop of as little as 5 to 6 degrees, in most cases. So dropping a female enclosure from a top shelf in the spider room to a bottom floor level shelf, and leaving it there for several months, would provide that needed cool down period in most cases.

Males are ready to go as soon as they have their ultimate moult and produce a sperm web. After the ultimate moult, putting the male enclosure in very close proximity to the female's enclosure, will allow the male access to pheromones given off by the female...giving the male spider an important queue that should push him to produce a sperm web.

Females on the other hand, need to be finessed into the mood, so you use environmental queues over a period of a week (or weeks, depending on the species being breed) to bring about the changes to her body, that she needs in order to recognize mating season. Essentially, there are environmental queues that will trigger responses from the female spider. A period of increased moisture, followed later by an increase in prey items...are two very strong environmental queues that help to tell the female spider its time to mate. Feeding the female regular meals daily until she is satiated, gives her enough energy to produce healthy viable eggs (another environmental queue), and increases the odds of the male surviving the “Sexy Time”. (That term just cracks me up.)

For Example: The Aphonopelma hentzi mates in the fall, September through early October. During that time frame, they will get a seasonal period of 15 days or so of heavy cloud cover and misty drizzly weather, followed by a burst of late maturing insects during that time of year. This happens during the fall tarantula migration. The females mate, then over winter, and produce egg sacs the following spring. So all a Breeder needs to do is trigger the mating response by initiating the environmental queues that naturally occur during the mating season; followed by the winter cool down period. If all goes well, in the spring she'll open up her burrow...eat a bit, fast for an extended period, then produce an egg sac.

From my notes, I believe that Grammostola pulchripes and a couple others mate in the early spring, producing the egg sac in early summer...

Addendum: Timing is important. You'll want to initiate this whole process beginning about 30 days following the female's last moult. You are going to be giving her a lot of energy by satiating her with an abundance of food. If she moults, then the mating is lost. So let her moult, then initiate the mating cycle, and that will increase the odds of getting an egg sac, instead of her going into a long hard premoult, and losing the mating for that season.

 

[viper69]

There’s not a soul here with T breeding experience just plants

 

[moricollins]

There’s not a soul here with T breeding experience just plants

You're too much sometimes, even for me

 

[Smotzer]

There’s not a soul here with T breeding experience just plants

Hey i take pride In the breeding of my plants... hahaha I’ve harvesting pollen this week for breeding projects next growing season.

 

[Colorado Ts]

Grammostola pulchripes

Have not bred this species, yet. It is noted as a not to difficult species to mate. This is a species that I will try to mate in the future. So everything in this post is based on notes taken from discussions with breeders, details gathered from successful breeding reports, or notes that I’ve gathered from discussions on breeding similar or related species.

Beginning 30 days +/- from the female’s last moult. Put the male enclosure next to the females enclosure...if the ventilation holes overlap with each other...so much the better.

Once you see evidence of the male spider producing a sperm web, begin misting the female’s enclosure each day. The misting can be done in the morning or evening, but mist the enclosure once each day.

After 7-10 days of misting, feed the female a normal meal once each day until she refuses food. Feed normal portions, and continue misting once each day.

Once the female is refusing food, introduce the male to the female. If the male has produced a sperm web and the female is receptive there should be positive activity. You are looking for a good solid insertion from the male. Some breeders will stop with a good visible insertion, others will rotate in another male for another breeding attempt...up to 3 males. Still continue misting once a day.

Once breeding attempts are completed, you can stop misting each day. Drop back to a normal feeding routine...and patiently wait.

The female may go through a period where she refuses food for an extended period. The female may isolate herself into her burrow; and start building a web-enclosure, around herself. If you see this, then you should have an egg sac sometime in the next 12 hours.

As I've stated previously, I have not bred this species.

So, I've talked to yet another breeder and well, though there is good general information here,...there are errors. This person was gracious enough not to blast me publicly, but it won't do any of you any good. So please disregard this post, information is present though order of information is in question, and some details might not even be relevant.

We're all here because of our love of this hobby. We share our knowledge and information, if it’s accurate...awesome...if there are errors, then time to rethink.

My apologies.