Ok, here goes!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

got my 500 gram male spider in with a 1800 gram normal female... I know he is a little young, but we will see what happens. they are in a tub with no hides... just a water bowl. Come on baby
spiders!!!!!

[Holbeird]

Good luck

[Mike Cavanaugh]

well, 24 hours and no loving. I went to move the water bowl, and the female struck at me! She was really upset! I closed it and she struck the side! This is NOT normal! Is this a sign of something bad or good?

they are hanging out together but not coming close to the mating position. They don't seem to be very interested in one another. Should I abort completely? give them another day or two together, or give them a break, then try again in a few days??? Please help.

Thans for you help.

[monk90222]

Did you adjust temps?...lights?...

[Mike Cavanaugh]

yes on the lights... no on the temps. was trying to do it the "easy" way without temp changes! Oh well, i guess sometimes the "easy way" doesn't work!

[juddb]

Watch the weather channel and put them back together two days before the next low pressure system comes through. I bet sparks will fly.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

This will probably sound like a pretty stupid question... BUT...

when you say low pressure... do you mean when it is supposed to rain? If so, looks like that will be Tuesday here in Jackonville...

They were together only for 24 hours, put them together on Thursday night. removed Fri night. Are you saying I should put them together again tonight (sunday)?

[frankykeno]

Mike, I'm not by any means a highly experienced breeder at this point so I'll comment only as far as my own personal experience.

Last year was a bust on breeding, didn't see even one lock up. This year we did a bit more studying and talking to breeders, adjusted things a bit and are having great success with most of our pairings as far as lock ups go.

We didn't adjust temps much or fuss much with the adults that way. We did try to make sure they were receiving a good light cycle either through natural light (the BP room has two large windows) or artificial light. Both of those windows also have full pull down blinds in order to block light when needed.

We cycle our males for 3 days with each female they are to be paired with followed by 4 days apart at which time they are offered food if they wish to eat. We have them in big tubs with newspaper for substrate but no hides. We mist them heavily when the male is first introduced and every morning for the three days they are together. We do not clean out the tub at all as we've been told to not disturb them and that the urination going on is part of them laying down hormonal filled scents for each other.

We peek in daily but do not open the tubs or bother them unduly (other than that daily misting). We keep all traffic near the breeding tubs to a bare minimum during pairings.

I noticed the virgin males did take a rotation or two to figure out what a female is for but once they got the notation, they were much quicker to get down to business thereafter. The smaller males did take a bit of time to figure out some of the biggest of the females (I swear one had a look on his face like "good lord does this big snake ever end???? where's her back end????). They figured it out though and my worrying about small males and big females was for naught.

We have found that paying attention to weather fronts coming in was a great bit of advice shared with us. If the barometric pressure is changing abruptly, it seems to trigger them to mate like crazy. Now we watch the weather forecast daily and use that to help us decide when to hold off or hurry up and get a pair together.

[starmom]

Watch the weather channel and put them back together two days before the next low pressure system comes through. I bet sparks will fly.

And play Barry White in the background.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

And play Barry White in the background.

LOL!