What size to mate for a GBB

I think I have a female GBB and she is 4" I was wondering when do you think I could mate her w/a mature male. I thought about after the molt she has coming up a attempt to breed her. Was wondering if I should try or wait till she hit around 5".

Hi mate I would give it a go sexual maturity and size in theraphosids dont go hand in hand worst thing that can happen is a smaller sac with less spiderlings

Hi Rosehaired, If our idea of 4 inches is the same, Id wait another molt. My female green is 4 inches, and shes not mature yet. One way to guess if theyre ready is by asking yourself "Has it been a year betweeb her last molt and the molt before" Being that females only molt once a year. Good to see you again.

You female should be ok. The worst that can happen is thats they don't mate. or the male gets eaten. I have 5 of these that I plan on mating. one of my females is about the same size as yours and I'm still gona giver her a try the other one is about 5 1/2 inches so she should be ok. Be carfull though I herd that GBB femals can be quite violent towards the males. This however will be my fst GBB attempt but have done others like P murinus and T blondi I also have a gravid Crawshayi.

If you do breed them a
post back about your sucesses and failures as others including myself can lern from them.

IS there a foolproof way to tell when a female matures?

The best way to tell if you have a "sexually mature" dont get the two confused here is if they will mate and the only way to do that is to try even if the male seems a lot bigger than the female I have paired many smallish females with bigger males and had viable egg sacs small but viable
gwright
Cromatopelma Cynopubesence is a pain to breed I have tried to pair this sp with no success ( mainly due to impatience on my part ) paul towler however has paired this sp a number of times and had great success 3 females all about 4 inches sitting on huge egg sacs now the only thing Paul has told me and i have seen myself is the males are very very skittish! on 2 of his pairing attempts the male only inserted 1 palp then was off like a rocket but the proofs in the pudding all three that paul paired have produced sacs one will be ready next week and im lucky i have 50/50 on that one lol

RichardDegville said:

The best way to tell if you have a "sexually mature" dont get the two confused here is if they will mate and the only way to do that is to try even if the male seems a lot bigger than the female I have paired many smallish females with bigger males and had viable egg sacs small but viable
gwright
Cromatopelma Cynopubesence is a pain to breed I have tried to pair this sp with no success ( mainly due to impatience on my part ) paul towler however has paired this sp a number of times and had great success 3 females all about 4 inches sitting on huge egg sacs now the only thing Paul has told me and i have seen myself is the males are very very skittish! on 2 of his pairing attempts the male only inserted 1 palp then was off like a rocket but the proofs in the pudding all three that paul paired have produced sacs one will be ready next week and im lucky i have 50/50 on that one lol

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I know they are hard to breed but no harm in trying.

G_Wright said:

Thanks for the info. I know they are hard to breed but no harm in trying.

Click to expand...

Unless the female eats your male.

ShaunHolder said:

Unless the female eats your male.

Click to expand...

LOL

RichardDegville said:

The best way to tell if you have a "sexually mature" dont get the two confused here is if they will mate and the only way to do that is to try even if the male seems a lot bigger than the female I have paired many smallish females with bigger males and had viable egg sacs small but viable
gwright

Click to expand...

That's my current method!

That's my current method!

Click to expand...

its the only sure fire way really speaking

pairing deaths are a very rare occurrence and in my opinion if the female does get the male its mainly down to the breeder who should always be at hand to step in I strongly disagree with some breeders methods I have known breeders use the big tub method this again is a sure fire way of getting your male killed the big tub method goes like this place your females enclosure in a big tub leave the lid off or open place the male in the big tub and put the lid on and leave them to it this method is fool hardy to say the least 1 you do not know if mating has taken place 2 you miss the mating rituals ( mostly different in various sp) and 3 your rare male could be killed and eaten while your chatting to your bud over the phone boasting how your breeding a rare sp!. personally I use my bath tub to pair 9 out of 10 sp the 1% being pokies they mainly have to co exist for mating to occur but you are still risking the male but this cannot be helped back to the bath tub method this method is practically fool proof the females placed in the tub in her enclosure and the males introduced however this time it is under strict observation aka hovering over female with a chop stick just encase (could take hours) but if the male needs to get away quick he can and if the female follows ( like many Citharischius crawshayi do!) you have more chance of stopping her with the added bonus of the male not escaping and you having to spend a few nights at your mothers because you have a rabid usambara loose in you house lol. all in all its mainly confidence if you lack it or are to busy taking photos to notice the warning signs you could lose a male every breeder has there own methods however the bath tub method has always worked for me