Male eating the female!

[Vanisher]

Has this happend to one of you? I have bred countless tarantulas but i have never had this happen! But some 10 years ago, a guy i knew loaned my B harmorii male for breeding! He called me the day after and was very said! And shook up! What happend was that he introduced my male to the females tank. Nothing happend so after a while he went out in kitchen to get a beer, when he returned the male had the female in his fangs!! She was already dead and there where no point in seperate them! The male ate most of the female spider. I dunno of this was a extreme rare occurence, pribably was. I have never heard of it before! Very said, and one should never leave the room with 2 mating spiders, but usally, its the female that eats the male!

 

[Liquifin]

Has this happend to one of you? I have bred countless tarantulas but i have never had this happen! But some 10 years ago, a guy i knew loaned my B harmorii male for breeding! He called me the day after and was very said! And shook up! What happend was that he introduced my male to the females tank. Nothing happend so after a while he went out in kitchen to get a beer, when he returned the male had the female in his fangs!! She was already dead and there where no point in seperate them! The male ate most of the female spider. I dunno of this was a extreme rare occurence, pribably was. I have never heard of it before! Very said, and one should never leave the room with 2 mating spiders, but usally, its the female that eats the male!

Personally it almost never happens, but if it does, the first thing I always question is the sizes of the females. Because it's hard to picture a bigger female eaten by a smaller or leggy male.

 

[Vanisher]

The strange thing was that the male was smaller than his female! I had seen his female! This was absolute crazy!

 

[cold blood]

its rare, but it happens...its why pairings should always be supervised.

Ive never had it happen personally, but ive seen several threads here about such tragedy.

 

[Darth Molt]

Has this happend to one of you? I have bred countless tarantulas but i have never had this happen! But some 10 years ago, a guy i knew loaned my B harmorii male for breeding! He called me the day after and was very said! And shook up! What happend was that he introduced my male to the females tank. Nothing happend so after a while he went out in kitchen to get a beer, when he returned the male had the female in his fangs!! She was already dead and there where no point in seperate them! The male ate most of the female spider. I dunno of this was a extreme rare occurence, pribably was. I have never heard of it before! Very said, and one should never leave the room with 2 mating spiders, but usally, its the female that eats the male!

Did he feed the male before paring?

 

[Vanisher]

No, i fed him, cos ut was my male! Adult males seldom eats cos once they moult out into adults they usally just have SEX on their brains! But of course, feeding is maybe a good idea, before mating, but it is almost always futail, cos as i said, they seldom eats? They may do, but more important is to keep them moist and watered. The most important thing is to feed the female before breeding. But i have never thought it is as important like many other thinks! I dont think a female attacks and eats the male cos she is hungry. Same things here! If she is receptive i dont think she attacks him even if she is hungry! The sexdrive is stronger! When a female attacks and eats the male, its because she is unreceptive!? So i dont buy this "that it is very important to feed the female so she doesnt eat the male!" I may get bullied for this, but that is my view!

The feeding is meerly to fatting her up for the devoleping eggs sake!

 

[EtienneN]

Don't the females usually eat the males after they've mated?

 

[mantisfan101]

Not exactly a T but I’ve had a male mantis eat a female from the abdomen.

Also, in my opinion for predatory invertebrates, just because the male may seem weaker or more skittish doesn’t mean that they’rethenones at risk; jerusalem crickets, ground crickets, etc all have rather bulkier males with the risk of them overpowering and eating the male.

 

[Vanisher]

Don't the females usually eat the males after they've mated?

Sometimes, not always, and thats maybe so that the eggs should have nutrition! What i ment was that some think that female after, during or before mating eats the male for food, cos she is hungry! I dont think so, merly she eats the male as nutrition for her eggs, or cos she is unreceptive! But i see what you mean!

 

[Darth Molt]

Well it seems that he was pretty hungry if there wasn’t much of the female left over

 

[Vanisher]

I find it very strang. Even if males us unreceptive and hungry, all they usalky want is to mive away from the female! They are scared of her! If one has breeding spiders one kniws how respectful they are for her! They usally do all in there powe to get the hell away! But he sended me pictures where the male munshed on the female!

 

[EtienneN]

All the cases I've ever heard of this happening, the male was either super aggressive to begin with (like long before he even hooked out) or was considerably bigger than the females. I know this happened with a pair of C. lividus as well as some Pampho species. I think I saw something about this happening with B. hamorii and B. smithi, too. It's just something that happens from time to time. Just really stinks when it does.

 

[cold blood]

feeding is maybe a good idea, before mating, but it is almost always futail, cos as i said, they seldom eats? They

MMs in their prime tend to be more reliable eaters...less fresh males though, thats another story.

s! I dont think a female attacks and eats the male cos she is hungry. Same things here! If she is receptive i dont think she attacks him even if she is hungry! The sexdrive is stronger! When a female

Ive successfully paired many females without plumping them all that much....i agree, it s logical, but it really doesnt gaurantee anything by feeding them hard...fat females tend to be just as agressive at times.

I agree its more about pairing when she is receptive to breeding....something we cant always be sure of till the male is introduced.

Don't the females usually eat the males after they've mated?

Its far less common than people think....most of my MMs are either passed to another breeder after, or they die of old age. I would bet 90% of males walk away without incident.

 

[Vanisher]

I have this feeling to! I think i have breeding tarantulas maybe 15-20 times, and as i recall i have only had 3 instances where the female has attacked and eaten the male!

 

[Justin H]

Don't the females usually eat the males after they've mated?

Keep in mind I've never bred tarantulas. I've just watched a lot of videos.

In most of the "failed breeding" attempts I've seen on Youtube, the male is eaten as it approaches to mate. A lot of the times it's because the male does something ungraceful like slip or fall (viewer discretion advised... obviously). It's possible those females were already planning on eating those guys, though.

I've also seen a few where the female tries to snag the male directly after breeding/insertion (no fatalities in this one). The males usually get away in these situations.

 

[Vanisher]

Keep in mind I've never bred tarantulas. I've just watched a lot of videos.

In most of the "failed breeding" attempts I've seen on Youtube, the male is eaten as it approaches to mate. A lot of the times it's because the male does something ungraceful like slip or fall (viewer discretion advised... obviously). It's possible those females were already planning on eating those guys, though.

I've also seen a few where the female tries to snag the male directly after breeding/insertion (no fatalities in this one). The males usually get away in these situations.

The females often attack the male cos she is pissed off, and dont want him in her territory! But if she is receptive and offten she can make invitation for quite some times towards the male! Even if the male is unreceptive or to nervous to breed! Some speicies like P murinus you can leave the male in her cage for weeks! You can even see new spermwebb made by the males inside the females terrarium, meaning they have mated and he is tolerated to live with her!

Thats actually how i preferd to breed Pterinochilus murinus! I for ex had a large and defenssive female. I introduced the male ant she was a teaddybaer towards him! I saw them mate several times and let him live with her. I saw many spermwebbs inside females tank! After several month the male died! Natural causes. The femsle seald her nest and produced her sack! So while this speicies may be defensive towards humas, they are sweat against each other!

 

[Nightstalker47]

I believe this happens most when a female attacks the male first, and in the scuffle gets killed. Even MMs will try to defend themselves, they are usually overpowered though, which is why this is so rare...never heard of a MM actually going after the female for food.

 

[KezyGLA]

Its happened to me. Skinny, scrawny old MM C. versi ate my stunning female.

The only time it has happened to me

 

[cold blood]

Its happened to me. Skinny, scrawny old MM C. versi ate my stunning female.

The only time it has happened to me

Thats a crushing blow.:/

 

[Nightstalker47]

Its happened to me. Skinny, scrawny old MM C. versi ate my stunning female.

The only time it has happened to me

I can still vividly recall the photo you posted a few months ago.

Thats a crushing blow.:/

Just goes to show how crazy the invert world can be. I can think of no worse outcome for a potential breeding project.