Very interesting past 18 hours

[DawgPoundSound]

Well, late last night we had a failed mating attempt. Didn't end well. Lyra our 5 inch Rosea, Well she did welcome him in for mating, however he decided upon other things. He went into her burrow first, which annoyed her. She never moved from her mating position, which appeared as a threat posture. So after a couple of minutes of fooling around he comes out, and locks up with her. For some reason he wasn't getting it done. And I sensed her being annoyed even more and the second he backed off she tagged him. I tried to part them but she had pumped so much venom in it was already oozing out of his legs. And I mean she pumped him very rapidly. We didn't feel bad for him because she actually wanted to mate and he pranced around her home like he owned it.

Moving on to more surprising things. I leave during the day to pick up a 3.5" A. Metallica. Turns out it's another female. We named her (Polaris).

And then the greatest of all, we come home to check on the 2 slings, the LP and B. Vegan and what do ya know?! They both molted! Here are pics of the two slings and Polaris.

LP sling after molt

B. Vegan sling after molt

Polaris looking so pretty

 

[GPulchra]

That's really strange...anyways, 'grats on the molt!

 

[Crysta]

You cant expect tarantulas to mate the moment they are put together... lol!

 

[GPulchra]

Have you ever had venom spewing out of your legs?

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

So if you have a successful mating, what will you do with the slings? Are you prepared?

 

[DawgPoundSound]

You cant expect tarantulas to mate the moment they are put together... lol!

It was our 2nd attempt. We tried it the night before. Introduced him using the *shark tanking* technique. Worked ok but he fled for the most part and she made advances toward him that I just didn't like so i got him out of there. But this time she welcomed him. Something about this Rosea I can feel how her temperament is. It changes rapidly. She's my favorite of our Roses. She let him lock up with her this time, but he was just there. And it annoyed her and when he backed away after having done nothing she got him before he was in safe distance. All this took much much longer than I'm typing. Trust me. Roseas are so so slow in doing things.

 

[Spiral_Stairs]

Are you sure the males palps were loaded? Mating can take a very long time, especially with G. rosea. It's very important that you don't try to rush it by shoving the male in the females face. Introduce him at the opposite end of her burrow and just let him do his thing. It's also good to do this in a quiet low light environment. I paired a couple G. rosea years ago (unsuccesfully) and it took HOURS. I sat and watched the whole thing. There was hours of both just sitting in one spot and then about 30 seconds of actual mating. And are you prepared to take care of hundreds of slings?

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

Oh and are you sure your male is mature?

 

[DawgPoundSound]

And now I'm starting to wonder about my largest G Rosea (Loretta) she's been burrow bananas the past 24 hrs or so. I'm wondering if she is gonna molt soon. Both of my female Roses NEVER sit in their burrows. Ever. I'm not the expert on a gravid female or not, so I can't say if she was already. But my goodness she's went to work in her enclosure. Interesting past 18 hrs indeed. Could turn out to be a molt festival. :razz: