P. ornata male powerfeeding result.

[AmbushArachnids]

On may 25th 2010 I purchased a P. ornata sling at 3i. Today i found him freshly matured.

His last measurement was 6" DLS.. He is now 8" DLS Heres a quick shot i took with my camera phone..
His back leg isnt stretched all the way so use your imagination.

I didnt want to disturb him too much and my ussual camera is MIA.

Ignore the B. smithi label i never bothered to remove it since it was really stuck on.. Thanks for lookin you guys.

 

[crawltech]

Wow man...hes lon legged for sure...nice!,....i have 2 immature males, that ive had since 2nd or 3rd instar(last june)...nice to know what im gunna be up against once they mature!....i have a nice female waiting for them:}

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Wow man...hes lon legged for sure...nice!,....i have 2 immature males, that ive had since 2nd or 3rd instar(last june)...nice to know what im gunna be up against once they mature!....i have a nice female waiting for them:}

Thanks Crawltech. I am very excited to breed a male i have raised up. Good luck with your males.

My female is only 7" right now. :8o LOL She should molt in a month or 2 but i might pair them sooner. She hasnt molted since jan 2nd 2011 and i havent fed her up until a month ago. Any advice is welcomed and appriceated. :worship:

Note: I have read the breeding reports already.

 

[crawltech]

Thanks Crawltech. I am very excited to breed a male i have raised up. Good luck with your males.

My female is only 7" right now. :8o LOL She should molt in a month or 2 but i might pair them sooner. She hasnt molted since jan 2nd 2011 and i havent fed her up until a month ago. Any advice is welcomed and appriceated. :worship:

Note: I have read the breeding reports already.

My female is only about 7" aswell...and has aslo molted right around then aswell....i have no experience breeding poecis,..and have also read all the breeding reports...im ready to give it a go, jus need a few good men....lol

i would say it perfect time to pair them up (once he makes a sperm web)...at 7 inches, her molt intervals should be longer than a few months, id say closer to a year, so feed her a few big dudias, make sure her enclosure is on the dry side, and by then the MM should be locked and loaded.....cant wait to see the pics man!...good luck!

 

[Poxicator]

I'd be interested to see what happens with this, according to some illuminaries power feeding produces less fertile males so it will be interesting to see how it affects your partnership.

 

[razor244]

I'd be interested to see what happens with this, according to some illuminaries power feeding produces less fertile males so it will be interesting to see how it affects your partnership.

hmm i wonder why eating more and growing faster then other males would make a healthy successful male produce less sperm .

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Interesting.. Ive never heard that before. I have heard males mature smaller when power fed..

 

[Thegloryfades]

I wonder if maybe power feeding doesn't allow their reproductive organs to develop as well as if they take their time growing

 

[Poxicator]

hmm i wonder why eating more and growing faster then other males would make a healthy successful male produce less sperm .

I have no idea on the logical argument, its what the likes of Ray Gabriel have suggested to me. Stan Schultz also mentions that power feeding for the entirely of the Ts life has detrimental affects.

I'd guess the overfeeding produces rapid moulting, and certainly the timescale mentioned reflects that. If its possible that this stunts their growth, as has been noted by Schultz, then its possible that the sperm producing organs might also be affected. Afterall its quite easy to impact the sperm within humans.

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Interesting opinions. I think Ts can adapt to environmental conditions better than most think. Heres the molt dates for those interested. To each his own when feeding your own Ts. I fed him as much as he could handle and kept him at 85 deg 24/7 until he molted in sept. Then he was put on a 12 hour day/night cycle roughly 85/75 deg.

Purchased From Paul becker
Arrived 5/27/10 3i not 2i sorry i missed that part. Good thing its in my records.
Molts
m/d/y
5/27/10 (molted into 3i in transit)
6/22/10
7/16/10
8/7/10
9/4/10
10/14/10
12/10/10 6" penultimate
3/18/11 8" after ultimate molt

 

[ornamentalist]

the male ornata do usually mature out huge! My penultimate is a good 7 inch. He already makes my mm striata look like a sling so imagine when hes mature! The ruffies get large too! I also have a mm subfusca who is bigger than the female (she is from the same sac) he has at least 7 inch on him too!

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Id love to see a photo your P. ornata next to a ruler. I doubt he is 7" penultimate.. I know there is always size variations.

 

[ornamentalist]

Id love to see a photo your P. ornata next to a ruler. I doubt he is 7" penultimate.. I know there is always size variations.

i will post 1 next time he is out. He is positively large, he was also power fed, he was always packing adult dubias away and there was only 2 months between his last moult and the one before. I have reigned in on the grub a little for now as i want it to be at least another 3 months until he matures (when i can afford a female for him!)

 

[Poxicator]

Agent, here is a quote that might interest you by the president of ATS, Christian Elowsky:
At Arachnocon in 2007, a well rounded round table discussion all agreed that overfeeding was the main issue facing the hobby, the group included Eric Reynolds, Bill Korinek, Michael Jacobi and I think Frank Somma.

 

[AmbushArachnids]

Do you know how the actual conversation went? What was said and why power feeding is bad? Ive heard the opinion that the exo forms better when fed moderatly.. Such as the foundation is build in layers ect.

I have yet to been pointed in the direction of actual proof or statistics. Im not saying i can disprove the theory but dont see any evidence to support it.
If it was so bad for them we would see solid proof in almost every indivual people powerfeed. I will agree there is a greater risk of mechanical injury with Fat T but all my Ts basically sit around and eat like fat lazy slobs.

I actually experienced negative effects with a T. gigas male i had put on a strict diet. He molted. Ate one adult lateralis. Molted a month later. Was not fed, but watered each day for the next month. He molted again a month later and now has no fangs. I cant say for sure why he lost his fangs but i have a theory of my own.

Could it be the lack of nutrition and temps too high making his metabolism to food intake unbalanced? Maybe.. I have a female T. gigas sibling that i have fed everything she will take and has shown no ill effects, Along with the other 80 or so other Ts. I feed in the same manner.

I encourage people to take science into thier own hands and put a group of slings from the same sac to the test. Taking someones opinion and making it your own just because they are professionals isnt how new revelations are discovered. If people want to listen to the professionals becuase they have the Ts best interest in mind, im all for that.

It seems to me that most Ts that are in good health do just fine being powerfed. I have only one out of 90 or so Ts i have kept that have shown problems with powerfeeding. It may have been from a fall soon after a molt idk. It was a female P. irminia that had a cyst at 2.5". I drained it and patched it twice in one week. After she was fed sparingly until 2 molts later. She was monitored closely and powerfed after those 2 recovering molts. As of now she is the size of a grape and full of eggs at 5" DLS. She has shown no signs of the cyst reappearing. If i would of taken many of peoples advice to leave it she would most likely be dead.

 

[Poxicator]

I think the proof you require will be a long time coming. They are mere curiousities of the hobbyist. The science of tarantula is based elsewhere and we shouldnt expect to see reports on such things. What we can see is the experience of the long term keepers and those who have a stronger interest than our own. I think if you ignore the likes of names Ive mentioned you do yourself and your Ts a dis-service.
The feeding regime in the wild is linked to seasonal changes, it has been for millions of years. We can take pointers from that which I'd expect are not often reflected in our own husbandry. That should at least question our methods, reports or not