How do millipedes prepare to molt?

[Miloren]

My Orthoporus ornatus has been in the same spot in a spiral for the past few days, I finally decided to check on her. Blew some air on her and got no reaction, but she didn't smell like death, so I gave her a small poke and she wasn't limp either. Finally noticed her antenna moving around, so I'm hoping she's just molting and these aren't just her last seconds?

 

[chanda]

I don't know much about millipedes molting - my current pair of O. ornatus have apparantly been doing so discretely (they've gotten bigger, but I've never seen any discarded molts - either they or the beetles they share accomodations with may have eaten them) - but I do know that several years ago, one of my first millipedes (a Florida Ivory millipede) went into premolt and I didn't realize it. I thought it had died and went to pick it up. When I realized it was still alive, I put it back into the container. A day later it molted - and promptly died on me. I'd recommend leaving it alone and just keeping it warm and maybe adding a little moisture/humidity.

 

[Jacob Ma]

You want to minimize stress on the millipede as much as possible. Larger invertebrates like it want to be kept hidden before and while molting, so it is best advised you keep the container dark and undisturbed. I've never kept Orthoporus ornatus before, but I can tell you that usually millipedes will burrow or hide under a piece of debris when preparing to molt.