Vinagaroon babies?

[jellica]

Hi all, long time lurker here, first time posting. Any advice on vinagaroon babies?

The long story: I got my vinagaroon back in February (had no idea it was a female). She was very active for a while but then she suddenly went completely MIA. A few months went by and I noticed her burrow entrances were gone/caved in. I didn’t want to disturb her in case she was molting, so I let her be. Fast forward another month, and I made the dumb decision today to see if she was still alive. I had been a bit concerned because I had never seen her eat, even before this, and all of her tunnels were gone. So I ended up gently sifting through the dirt - I almost thought she had gotten out because I couldn’t find her. I know now this was stupid, because I read it can take months for them to molt, and disturbing that would have been bad…classic human error. Anyway, eventually I could see movement and her coming up through the dirt. I was SHOCKED to see her back full of white babies. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at because I was definitely not expecting it at all.

I feel so horrible for disturbing her. I’m so glad it seems I didn’t harm her or the babies, but now I am not sure if I’ve ruined her process/irreversibly stressed her out. I immediately put back all of her hides and added a small upside-down bowl submerged in the dirt to make for an easy-access burrow. I don’t plan on disturbing her at all anymore, but I’m worried I may have stressed her out beyond repair by uprooting her from her actual burrow.

I have so many questions, as I have never even looked into breeding these guys, and had 0 idea she was gravid when I got her 8 months ago.

Will she burrow on her own again with the babies? Have I decreased her/her babies chances to thrive? Should I offer food, or will that stress her further?

How close are these babies to leaving their mom? Will she eat them if I don’t remove them at that point? Are they hard to keep alive?

Any help or advice on baby vinagaroon care is appreciated. This is very similar to the time my jumping spider surprised me with a clutch of babies, half a year after I got her from an expo as well. It was such a learning experience, and I think this will be one too.

 

[Veno Manus]

Try to offer a prefilled meal. But don't feed a live loose meal. The babies are jelly and easy to be picked off. Stick a peice of cork over her to be safe. We all get curious and have the concerns so don't feel to bad. We are all guilty ha. But offer water in a shallow dish for sure. I don't keep these but from my broods of scorpions the moms will still eat with young on them and they will seek water. Good luck with the new family!

 

[Kada]

The less you touch the better. when I was breeding them(different species) I would only give prekilled bugs to moms holding babies. not roaches or anything that twitches once beheaded.

make sure she has a good hide she can fit under and place the food away from it as to not stress. if she's hungry, she will walk out for it. and water.

other than that, keep temps right and dont disturb her too much. no lights.

good luck, it is pretty cool to watch them. once they molt out and become mini-me's they will walk off mom a bit and can be separated.

 

[jellica]

Update: crazy how fast these guys have grown. They’re all crawling around on their own, some of them were still hanging out next to mom without her having an issue with it. I’m assuming it’s time to separate them though, just to be safe!

Does anyone know if they can be housed together? I bought some 8oz containers but just curious if I can keep multiple under one roof. They seem to still be pretty group-oriented, but I know that can probably change rather quickly. There’s at least 15 of them, some are still probably hiding in the original enclosure.

PS: If anyone is in the San Diego area and wants one of these babies, let me know! I am currently overstocked.

 

[jellica]

Just updating for the documentation’s sake in case anyone is reading this (and because I’m a huge bug nerd).

Separated most of the babies out into their own containers (some I’ve left three to a container because they seem to still be pretty communal - I caught two of them sharing a cricket, and huddling together). Will probably separate completely once I start seeing a change. I left a couple of them in the main tank with mom, and they seem to still be living pretty communally under a log with her too. She’s been especially hungry lately and even took a roach from my tweezers, which has never happened before! It was very cool to see the babies quickly come up to her to try and get a bite. She seemed annoyed and flicked them away until they found a dropped leg and started sharing it. I’m glad she seems like she is doing well, because I’ve read that the mother’s die after having babies a lot of the time.

I absolutely love observing these guys. The babies are extremely sociable and interactive, and seem to use their antenniforms to communicate with each other a lot which is pretty cool to watch. It’s neat to know that not a lot of people get to experience this. One of the reasons I love keeping invertebrates is that they are understudied and you never know what you will learn from having one, or how lucky you will get.