I just ordered a small red trapdoor, and was thinking about how they seem to be very popular items, but are never listed as being captive bred. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to breed them, or even if much is actually known about their mating. I feel that it may be safe to assume that males, upon maturity, leave their burrows and seek out the burrow of a mature female, and so I thought that it may be possible to set up a breeding group by purchasing several trapdoors, allowing them to establish burrows in tubular containers, and then placing each an equal distance apart in a large bin or tank and filling in around the tubes up to their edges, and then removing the lids. The whole group could be fed this way, and wandering males would hopefully be able to ascertain which burrows were approachable, facilitating breeding without much direct human influence. This may be a bad idea if, for instance, the sex ratio of wild caught trapdoors is skewed towards one gender or another. If many people have noticed their spiders coming out of the burrow and soon after dying, maybe they are mature males that cannot pursue a mate. Does anyone know at what size these spiders mature, and if the difference between males and females is obvious? Sorry that this is such a rambling post, but I would appreciate any ideas/suggestions/encouragement, as I think it would benefit the wild trapdoor populations to be able to breed them in captivity. Thanks,
Mike
Mike
