Grammostola pulchra

[TheNatural]

Ok guys, finally I did mate my old girl

I will describe a little bit of the whole thing.

05/10/15 - First I put her in a nice and long enclusure, 100x40x30 (cm), fed her very well and let her web arround for 15 days...

05/10/30 - than I put the male (1/3 of the enclosure) and left him there for 10 days.

05/11/10 - I tried to mate them twice but both seem not interested on each other, and i noticed that my female stopped eating and was in pre
molting phase. I decided to wait but I left the male there in "shark cage".

05/12/23 - she molted.

06/01/08 - I gave her a nice big toad, almost as big as her.

06/01/09 - I put them toghether, the male started drummin, the female did the same but in a faster rythm, he just knew what to do, held her for 4 minutes, than ran away like crazy.

[padkison]

It's been interesting breeding the pulchra. Three times putting the male in with the female and 3 rejections. She comes after him with her fangs completely extended. I am assuming she is aggressive and not hot-to-trot. The male seems to have the same opinion. Only once did he engage her for awhile, the other two times he was out of there. The time he did engage her, he gave up after about 30 seconds.

I saw no drumming from either tarantula.

These attempted pairings got the male hot and bothered. He made two sperm webs in one day on Friday.

Today I was able to get a pairing.

Apparently, a roach injected with some tequila makes her more receptive......

Hope you didn't believe that last line.....

Actually, what I did was move the male to a 5.5g tank. Instead of putting the male in with the female, I put her in with him. He was probably less nervous and she was likely somewhat less defensive. Still, when I maneuvered her so they touched and he started touching her with his legs, her fangs came straight out in front of her and spread apart. He tried to engage, but kept going over the top of her. I broke out into a sweat letting them keep going. He figured out where to place himself and got the hooks onto the fangs and pushed her back. I don't know if he got an insert or not because I stayed above to intervene and was focused on saving the male if need be. They were together only about 1 minute I am guessing. Then he pulled back and wanted to break free, but he was in the corner and I placed a paint brush in front of her fangs to keep her off him until he got out of the way.

Next time I will allow more time trying to get some drumming going as described in the T Keepers Guide.

The aphonopelma I've bred work well with placing the female in with the male and coaxing her toward him. In those cases, the male rushes out, engages, and does his thing with no aggression by the female whatsoever.

I will be going for 3 pairings spaced by seeing a fresh sperm web

Comments via PM from experienced T breeders welcome.

[padkison]

Male in 5g tank for a week and no new sperm web. Shark-tanked female with him and he made a sperm web the next day. Day after that, I let the female out. Maneuvered them slowly until they touched by teasing legs alternately between the two with an artist's brush. Upon touching, female extended fangs and male started pushing and dancing around her trying to engage. Took him about 30 seconds before he got her pushed back. He pushed her back across the tank about 6" until he got her cranked back. They were in that position for about 3-4 minutes. Lighting was dimmed and I was above and unable to verify any insert although female did have a one noticeable twitch. Once male began to let her down and back away, I inserted artist's brush between the two while male made his escape.

I will give them both a meal and wait until the weekend and repeat the process of shark-tanking the female.

[cheetah13mo]

First attempt was not successful. Putting them together was probably a bit premature considering how recent the male had his mature mature molt. I did see some good signs from the encounter though. I put the male into the females enclosure and he stepped around, very unsure. As soon as the female realized he was in there, she persued him with a high amount of interest. I was ready for anything but luckily there were no burst of speed or aggression towards him. This leeds me to believe that once he is more at ease and they are both well fed, I should be able to have a successful mateing between the two.

[ScorpDemon]

I began pairing the happy couple in September of '07 unsuccessfully 2 times each week. Nothing happened until Noveber 5, 2007. They bred a total of 5 times, insertions were observed each time. Since that time the female has only accepted 3 meals, but her abdomen has gotten absolutely HUGE, and she has now started moving a lot of substrate around and refusing all meals offered to her. The temps in the room are in the mid to high 60's now and has been since just after the breeding started. I will begin warming the room up in the coming weeks and hoping to find an eggsac one day when I come home from work. I'll let everyone know when that happens, or if she molts, I'll share that too.

Thanks,
Chris

[patrick86]

Female and male hooked up five times back in February. Female was cooled for two plus months. She is absolutely huge. I feel sorry for her. For the past two weeks she's been moving substrate around seemingly without purpose. Does anybody know if there is a trigger or something that needs to be done to get her to make the sac? Should I soak her? Dry her? Raise/lower temps? I'm desperate to find something. Every time I look at her I think she's going to burst. Thanks for any help.