Pastel Butter x Spider (Maternal Incubation)

[meowmeowkazoo]

I moved the eggs to the incubator. They felt fairly soft and pliable, so high hopes. Perhaps they would have been fine after all without me adding the moss last night, but what's done is done.

Here's the post from the last page, for higher visibility.

Okay, so.

I've got the incubator heating up, and will be removing the eggs in an hour or two, after temperatures are stable.

I want to thank everyone for their support and interest in this project. It means a lot to me. In a way, I feel like I've failed you all, and this decision was one that I struggled with for days. In the end, I feel that the eggs will be better off in an incubator until they hatch. This was a preventable decision, and I feel badly that I didn't put enough foresight into this process to succeed.

I'll be happy to answer any questions that I didn't anticipate in this post.

1) Why am I removing the eggs?

Because Charlotte has stopped wrapping them, and the temperature of the eggs is unstable (one is at 85 degrees, another is at 88 degrees).

2) Is this a reason not to do maternal incubation or something that can typically be expected to happen with MI?

Absolutely not. I feel that the reason Charlotte has abandoned the nest is due to my own mistakes. Adding the damp moss disturbed her, and I feel that in general I have been too attentive toward her and the nest. I've made her uncomfortable, and that is something that could have easily been avoided.

3) How will I prevent this from happening in the future?

Next year I will have a much better setup for MI. I underestimated how hard it would be to keep humidity up in an arid state like Utah. Charlotte is in a poorly-made rack that lets a lot of humidity escape. Next year my brooding females will be in a professional rack, and I may even put the maternally incubating females in tubs with lids.

4) Is this an issue that other people should prepare for?

I don't believe this will be an issue for most people who want to try maternal incubation. Keep in mind the humidity of where you live, and be prepared to adjust the brooding female's enclosure as necessary. These adjustments should be done BEFORE she lays eggs, as doing so afterward can result in her leaving the nest (as happened here).

5) What would I have done differently to succeed at maternal incubation?

Next time (and yes, there will be a next time), I will be more careful and aggressive with keeping humidity at acceptable levels. If I had set up the nest to maintain the proper levels of humidity, I would not have had to disturb it at all, and I believe I would have succeeded with Charlotte. I underestimated how dry Utah is, and the coconut husk and sphagnum moss bedding were not enough. In the future I will use a better rack, or tubs with lids on to maintain humidity. I may also experiment with containers of water crystals near the heat source, or containers of plain water if I can figure out a way to keep them secure.