MillipedeTrain
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2019
- Messages
- 78
If you want your millipedes to breed and not have them die for impaction get rid of most of that coconut fibre. Coconut fibre is terrible. When I first got into millipedes I knew nothing about them and put them mainly on coconut fibre. It killed them all.These are the substrates I used for my juvenile giant african millipede. It hasn't arrived yet but I wanted to see if this was okay. I have mostly the coconut stuff on the bottom but then the blacker stuff on top. Any thoughts?
The substrate you have for your millipedes is EXTREMELY important because unlike other creatures that simply use it for bedding to live and dig in, millipedes actually spend a significant amount of time burrowing in and eating all contents of their substrate! So if you have poor quality, lacking in nutritional value substrate your millipedes unfortunately will not live for a very long time as opposed to how much they could eating a proper nutritionally balanced substrate. Not only that but they especially will not breed successfully. I’m not trying to sound harsh here I’m trying to help you not make the same mistakes I did when I first got millipedes I watched a terrible video on YouTube that told me to put them directly onto coconut fibre with a few leaves and a stick. They all died very quickly despite the fact that I gave them more leaves and lots of moss and a bit of wood and sticks, nutritionally it just wasn’t enough. I tried again with a half coconut fibre half other organic black earth mix and I was still having some die but they weren’t breeding. Another bad thing about cocofibre is that it impacts babies and adults and pulls the moisture out of adult millipedes as it dries. These were all things I personally experienced with coco fibre which is why I hate it so much because I know it’s not safe. So after my first major loss and the second time of continued failures I was devastated and then spent lots of time researching appropriate substrates and then I spent hours making my ultimate substrate of which ALL my millipedes are happily eating, thriving, and breeding excessively upon! Coconut fibre is not part of that and never will be. I have so many babies now I’m actually going to have to start separating the males from the females!
Here’s my substrate mix plus extras for happy ‘pedes. It’s not really too much different than the fussy millipede substrate except for the lack of coconut fibre. That stuff, especially in excess isn’t safe and this I know for a fact. Others are of course welcome to disagree. I just know what I’ve seen and experienced and I will never let my millipedes suffer again...Anyways, sorry I ramble on haha without further delay...
My breeding millipede substrate
40% Organic Black earth soil bags purchased from the grocery store free of pesticides and fertilizers(made of Humus and peat loam. Humus is basically a fancy word for composted plant material, often collected from forests as well. Peat loam is the decaying matter from plants and Sphagnum moss harvested below the living sphagnum moss in peat bogs. It’s far more nutritional than peat moss itself.)
34% Baked maple and oak leaves
Baked decaying oak , alder, beech and maple wood
20% Sphagnum moss
5% Asian forest moss (the kind that is sold in the reptile section in a block sealed in plastic)
1% Shaved cuttlefish bone reduced to a fine powder
+ Springtails
+ Hypoaspis miles mites (Predatory mites that ONLY eat bad mites. So if you find grain mites disgusting like I do they’re wonderful! I don’t have a single grain mite in any of my enclosures now! However keep in mind they do eat springtails too so make sure your springtails are absolutely booming before you introduce some predatory mites into your enclosures! They will NOT harm babies or molting millipedes like isopods will!
+ Oak, maple, beech branches for climbing
+ Cork bark tubes for hiding
+ Pillow moss for decorations or to retain humidity
+ Small exoterra reptile caves for hiding
+ Exoterra water bowl that is filled with fresh filtered water at all times
+ Exoterra rock dish that is filled with fresh ORGANIC FRUITS & VEGGIES ONLY!
+ fake plastic plants for decoration
In all honesty I don’t really hold to the percentages too much regarding the leaves, decaying wood and black earth soil too closet because I mix in COPIOUS AMOUNTS of them! And after I have mixed everything thoroughly I then add even more baked decaying wood on top as well as nice leaf layer across the entire top of the substrate because that acts as a cover and keeps the humidity in and keeps the substrate from drying out too quickly and gives your millipedes a place to hide and feel safe!
If there is one other thing I cannot possibly stress enough that poses a serious danger to millipedes that most people have no idea about...NEVER EVER PUT ISOPODS INTO YOUR MILLIPEDE ENCLOSURES ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANT TO BREED! Isopods gang up and kill and EAT babies, moulting millipedes, injured millipedes and even fully grown healthy adult millipedes! They’re TERRIBLE to poor millipedes! Unless you have so many millipedes that them killing and eating a bunch of your millipedes doesn’t matter then I do not under any circumstances recommend! (Even in that case, I still wouldn’t recommend I would just recommend you separate the males instead if you have too many!)
Attached a buncha pics of my happy lil’ babies that are growing wonderfully! I have 3 different species of babies growing up together(soon to be bumblebee babies as they’ve laid eggs in my baby bin!) Attached a pic showing each of them together with their species name.
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