To pull or not To pull

azroc909 · Jan 29, 2015

Hey everyone! Want your guys input on this... Every time i breed i pull the eggsac depending on species, time etc... and put it in my incubator and never had a problem, but i yet to leave the eggsac with the mother due to my fear of something going wrong like she'll eat it, go bad due to humidity etc... have any of you done both or one or the other? Whats your take on leaving the eggsac with the mother? When you'd loose the fear of letting mom take care of it lol.

IHeartTs · Jan 29, 2015

I personally don't breed but I'm sure you'll get mixed responses. I know some pull it around the time they're 2nd instar. So essentially most people I know will leave it with the mother for the most part. I've been told they'll only eat it when it's not going to be a good sac. Like with everything, the spider knows best. I'm sure you'll get better answers than mine though

Poec54 · Jan 30, 2015

IHeartTs said:
I personally don't breed but I'm sure you'll get mixed responses. I know some pull it around the time they're 2nd instar.

That's around 2 months (2nd instar). At that point you have to watch that the slings don't start escaping out the airholes.

IHeartTs · Jan 30, 2015

Poec54 said:
That's around 2 months (2nd instar). At that point you have to watch that the slings don't start escaping out the airholes.

I'm sure it's doable. Like I said, no breeding experience, just passing along what others have told me they do. ALTHOUGH that might be changing soon. I might breed my p irminia next saturday and I'm looking for males for my other AFs.

catfishrod69 · Jan 30, 2015

Personally i think leaving the sac with the mom is the worse thing you can do. Unless its M. balfouri. Sometimes youll get lucky and have a good mother, and she will hatch them out. But other times youll have a mother eat a sac of ewls, 1 day before you were going to pull them. And that same mother could switch how she feels with each sac. Thats why any sac that isnt balfouri, i pull. And i do it pretty much on these guidelines, H. gabonensis 5 days, hammock makers, arboreals, anything that doesnt take forever to develop 21 days, Brachys, or any other species that take a long time to develop 30 days.

fuzzyavics72 · Jan 30, 2015

I completely agree with John. I only let avics and balfouri keep sacs. Pokies have been known to eat sacs all the time, but I've noticed avics are the BEST mom's in the hobby besides balfouri. I was in the middle of a move and I let my diversipes hold her sac for 51 days. I usually pull sacs around 28 days and pokies 21 days.

---------- Post added 01-30-2015 at 12:12 PM ----------

Martin what sp. has an eggsac that you're debating about?

My P metallica female finally is about to lay a sac. I'm pulling that sac at 15 days. I'll roll the sac five times a day till 25 days. I'm not losing a chance because my beautiful girl was scared and ate her sac. I've already rolled a versicolor sac for a long time due to an insane ex.

Tfisher · Jan 30, 2015

I recently pulled avic sac at 24 days but have know people to pull the first day and make a mechanical mom. It's a light timer with a container glued to it. I think it rolls the egg sac 6 times a day.

My sac turned about 75% live rate but they are still first instar. In the long run I agree with everyone else pull your egg sac away from mom in the 20-30+ day range. 24 days worked good for me!

louise f · Jan 30, 2015

Hey azroc909

We do always take the eggsac from mom. and use an incubator. because there is always a possibility that she will eat the sac.
exept our C.darlingi we let her keep her sac. and it turned out that she was a good mother. the C.darlingi do make a really weird eggsac.

azroc909 · Jan 30, 2015

fuzzyavics72 said:
I let my diversipes hold her sac for 51 days. I usually pull sacs around 28 days and pokies 21 days.
Martin what sp. has an eggsac that you're debating about?

Hey Chris, well it's my diversipes she has a sac now for 30 days and i been debating to use her as my guinea pig and let her be the first mom for me to hatch them out. I only pull the sac and have never left fhem with mom pass 25-40 days depending.

louise f said:
Hey azroc909

We do always take the eggsac from mom. and use an incubator. because there is always a possibility that she will eat the sac.
.

Hey Louise, yeah i always pull the eggsacs and put them in my incubator, but was thinking about leaving it with her to try, but i would think that pulling results in better percentage rate than mom.

catfishrod69 said:
Personally i think leaving the sac with the mom is the worse thing you can do. Unless its M. balfouri. Sometimes youll get lucky and have a good mother, and she will hatch them out. But other times youll have a mother eat a sac of ewls, 1 day before you were going to pull them. And that same mother could switch how she feels with each sac. ,

and that's what I'm afraid of that it will happen even if it's an Avic. So I'm still leaning more towards pulling it lol.

---------- Post added 01-30-2015 at 12:09 PM ----------

Tfisher said:
I recently pulled avic sac at 24 days but have know people to pull the first day and make a mechanical mom. It's a light timer with a container glued to it. I think it rolls the egg sac 6 times a day.

My sac turned about 75% live rate but they are still first instar. In the long run I agree with everyone else pull your egg sac away from mom in the 20-30+ day range. 24 days worked good for me!

yeah i pull the eggsacs pass that point of having to be rotating them do to my work schedule i cant rotate them 5-6 times a day. If i have to pull early at least when then they are EWL.

fuzzyavics72 · Jan 30, 2015

Like I said before I've never once had issues with avics, plus my buddy just let our sac be held by his girl for 54 days. And now we have urtican first instars. He actually likes pulling the sac later.

Martin, if it's a good sac please let me know looking to buy more diversipes! Or if you want to trade for my urticans. Best of luck to you buddy!

My female diversipes was just as good as my versicolor girl's. She produced two sacs of diversipes within three months of each other and I lost zero slings from both sacs.

catfishrod69 · Jan 30, 2015

I always think its better to be safe and pull than be sorry and wish you had. Sometimes you will be like ahh its one more day, itll be ok. Then the next day the sac is gone. Has happened to me multiple times. I had a P. fasciata eat a sac of ewls, and i found one lone ewl in the substrate. Also its much much easier to pull the sac early and deal with ewls that cant run away from you, than 1st instars that can, or even worse have 2nd instars running around in the mothers enclosure that are a pain to catch.

miss moxie · Jan 30, 2015

catfishrod69 said:
I always think its better to be safe and pull than be sorry and wish you had. Sometimes you will be like ahh its one more day, itll be ok. Then the next day the sac is gone. Has happened to me multiple times. I had a P. fasciata eat a sac of ewls, and i found one lone ewl in the substrate. Also its much much easier to pull the sac early and deal with ewls that cant run away from you, than 1st instars that can, or even worse have 2nd instars running around in the mothers enclosure that are a pain to catch.

I've no experience with breeding (yet) but that always seemed like the most daunting part when I watched videos of people rounding up slings in a great big enclosure.

I can't imagine how much "fun" this must be with M. balfouri.

catfishrod69 · Jan 30, 2015

It can be a major pain. Especially when the slings are 1st and 2nd instar. Their toe hooks hold onto the webbing like crazy, they run like mad, and hide in every nook and cranny they can find. So you have to remove the mother, and with a paintbrush go through every single piece of substrate, cork bark, plastic plant, or anything else in the enclosure. The first sac i hatched was S. calceatum, and i didnt realize the female had a sac until i seen 2nd instars in the enclosure. Yep it was fun

.

miss moxie said:
I've no experience with breeding (yet) but that always seemed like the most daunting part when I watched videos of people rounding up slings in a great big enclosure.

I can't imagine how much "fun" this must be with M. balfouri.

fuzzyavics72 · Jan 30, 2015

I had the mother balfouri keep our babies till her slings were fifth instar. I've heard it's better to keep them with their mom. Was the greatest thing I've ever seen. It was like a bird feeding her young. Everyone needs balfouri in their collection. No other sp. of tarantula Is like balfouri.

miss moxie · Jan 30, 2015

catfishrod69 said:
It can be a major pain. Especially when the slings are 1st and 2nd instar. Their toe hooks hold onto the webbing like crazy, they run like mad, and hide in every nook and cranny they can find. So you have to remove the mother, and with a paintbrush go through every single piece of substrate, cork bark, plastic plant, or anything else in the enclosure. The first sac i hatched was S. calceatum, and i didnt realize the female had a sac until i seen 2nd instars in the enclosure. Yep it was fun .

Oh no, that does sound like one heck of a task. The feistier the mother, the more fun it becomes I can assume.

catfishrod69 · Jan 30, 2015

I kept half of mine with the mother and pulled half for selling. The ones i pulled grew slower, like half the rate. Then unfortunately my female died in a molt

. So now i have 2 communals of her young. One with 5 large slings, and one with 11 smaller slings. Gotta find me another female come springtime.

fuzzyavics72 said:
I had the mother balfouri keep our babies till her slings were fifth instar. I've heard it's better to keep them with their mom. Was the greatest thing I've ever seen. It was like a bird feeding her young. Everyone needs balfouri in their collection. No other sp. of tarantula Is like balfouri.

miss moxie · Jan 30, 2015

fuzzyavics72 said:
I had the mother balfouri keep our babies till her slings were fifth instar. I've heard it's better to keep them with their mom. Was the greatest thing I've ever seen. It was like a bird feeding her young. Everyone needs balfouri in their collection. No other sp. of tarantula Is like balfouri.

I know. I've had my eye on M. balfouri since I first started. I want to get some experience with OWs before I make the plunge and buy one. Though, I have heard they're less defensive and more skittish-- making them on the 'mild' end of the baboon spectrum.

---------- Post added 01-30-2015 at 06:19 PM ----------

catfishrod69 said:
I kept half of mine with the mother and pulled half for selling. The ones i pulled grew slower, like half the rate. Then unfortunately my female died in a molt . So now i have 2 communals of her young. One with 5 large slings, and one with 11 smaller slings. Gotta find me another female come springtime.

That's actually a really sad story. :[ Like their mother just died in the middle of taking care of them. Poor babies.

I bet your communals are gorgeous though!

catfishrod69 · Jan 30, 2015

Yeah it was really horrible. I couldnt believe a molt took her. I dont think a sling had tried biting her, if so i figured they would have all eaten on her. But she looked fine, molted all the way out too. Ah just a bunch of babies in plastic containers lol. I keep stuff simple mostly. Bout the fanciest i get is glass exo terras, and thats just because i have around 30 or more of them.

miss moxie said:
That's actually a really sad story. :[ Like their mother just died in the middle of taking care of them. Poor babies.

I bet your communals are gorgeous though!

fuzzyavics72 · Jan 30, 2015

I'm sorry for your loss John. Did you know Bob has five fresh mm balfouri? Good thing I went over lol.

My communal is awesome! I love throwing crickets in their enclosure. Everytime I do the five siblings rush out of their holes like rushing water lol.

I've never had any issues with balfouri. I love them to death! I'll have to post some pictures from my computer after work.

miss moxie · Jan 30, 2015

catfishrod69 said:
Yeah it was really horrible. I couldnt believe a molt took her. I dont think a sling had tried biting her, if so i figured they would have all eaten on her. But she looked fine, molted all the way out too. Ah just a bunch of babies in plastic containers lol. I keep stuff simple mostly. Bout the fanciest i get is glass exo terras, and thats just because i have around 30 or more of them.

Surrounded in plastic or not, multiple M. balfouri co-inhabiting a space together must be awesome to behold.

To pull or not To pull

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