Grammostola pulchra breeding size and age

Hello,
I'm planning on breeding this species in the future. I know they are really hard to produce a sac and need a cooling period but I'll try. I've read that it is better to have several females because the possibility of having a sac with only one is pretty small. I know they are slow growers and have read many threads on this topic. I have a 13cm (5 1/8'') female which I was lucky to get from a pet store at a ridiculously low price. I bought her in the summer. She was 10cm (4'') back then and she molted in September. I almost hadn't fed her (she refused to eat most of the time) until a month ago when she started eating small roaches. In the past three days she's eaten 3 large dubia roaches and has gotten pretty heavy so I probably won't feed her in the upcoming month or two. So, knowing they get to about 8'', when do you think mine will be ready to breed? I'm also probably going to buy a juvenile suspect female which I want to breed along with the larger female but I'll talk to the guy who's selling it tonight for more info and then I'll decide. I don't know the age of my female but I don't think she's very old. Maybe 2- 3 years (depends on how the previous owner was feeding her).

I've never heard of pulchra getting 8". Are you confusing that with pulchripes, which is a bigger species? From what I've seen, pulchra are a 6" spider. If I were you, I'd keep feeding her and get a molt. That way she certainly should be big enough to breed.

Thanks for the quick reply! I've read in some places that they can get 8", but most of the pulchras are smaller. I know a person who has an old female which is way bigger than mine. Ha has seen my female and thinks she's still small. So you advise me to continue to feed her heavily? I want to buy several more females so there is a bigger chance of success. If they are small, should I power feed them so they could reach the big one's size? There is currently a large male sold here and it is believed that he'll mature the next molt (he also has molted last summer). I don't know when my female's going to molt. Should I buy him instead of a small female? How old do you think my pulchra is? Thanks in advance.

Judging from your tarantulas size, and their glacially slow growth rate, I'd say she is considerably older than 2-3 years.

Yes, but I've heard that they grow fast in the first year or two to several inches and then slow down. A person in my country had posted a picture of his female a year ago when he got her and now. A year ago she was a small juvenile, while now she looks pretty big.

---------- Post added 04-07-2015 at 07:04 AM ----------

How much do you think she has left? No matter what, a price equivalent to $25 for a large female is a pretty good deal even for Europe.

I'm willing to bet she's considerably older then two to three yeasrs. Probably more like 6-8. A tarantula is nearly impossible to accurately guess age based on size there are too many variable conditions. Temperatures while growing, and food availability being the most influential in maturity rate. Unless you know yourself when she was hatched with accurate feeding and molting records, there really is no way to know. As far as how much longer she may live, Grammostola spp. Can live up to 20 or more years in captivity after their maturing molt for females. 12-18 months for males.

Thanks. I know all of that. I was just asking considering the fact that the previous owner may have been a noob who fed her regularly as advised by the more experienced (maybe 1 food item per week) and wasn't really so obsessed in tarantulas to want to make it grow fast. Also, most first time owners usually buy all kinds of equipment to ensure the well-being of their tarantula and also the good appearance of the enclosure. I don't think any experienced trader would sell this tarantula at such a low price. I know, too much guessing...

---------- Post added 04-07-2015 at 07:48 AM ----------

A last question: would you advise me to buy several more small females, wait for them to mature and then try to breed or take a risk and buy a male now?

I don't know about slowing down after the first year or two, but my small pulchra sling which is 2'' now took 6 months to get a molt. There are plenty of males in our country. Trying to breed a single female is taking a huge risk.

That was what I thought, too. I'll buy several other small females or a small male and wait. I'll try and talk to some people to give me their males on a breeding loan. Most probably, nothing will happen with a single female, but a try won't hurt anybody.

The more you feed them, the faster they molt, and the sooner they get to a good breeding size. People do the reverse with males: keep them cool, feed them less, and try to keep them maturing too soon.

Thanks! I do the same thing with my males which don't have a female to mate with in the future. I do the opposite with the ones for which I have found a female: feed frequently. I already talked to a person who is selling a pulchra sling - 2cm body and two years old. Hopefully, it will arrive intact in Monday/Tuesday. I have also caught my eye on a suspect female. The owner is going to call me this evening. I'll feed them more and will keep the temperature higher. I'll also try to contact pulchra breeders and ask them some questions regarding breeding the species.

Feed her 3 times a week id say I would feed her newborn dubias.But at this point she will probably eat a little more.But power feeding is still an option.Id wait until shes about 6 and a half inches .Then id say go for it and try to breed.And yes,I would get multple females just incase.

---------- Post added 04-07-2015 at 10:10 AM ----------

But that is a low price for those and I would make sure not too overfeed her .But id be carefull with powerfeeding .But to me ,there is no regular amount of feeding a
tarantula.Just know what you are doing and everything should be fine.But again breeding a female once of those species is a huge risk.:idea:

pokie99 said:

I'll feed them more and will keep the temperature higher.

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It also helps to place them higher on a shelf, where the temps are warmer than near the floor.

Thanks for the advice! About the feeding: In my 1 year of keeping tarantulas, I have never had problems on deciding when, how often, etc. to feed. Now, I have 28 Ts - both NW and OW. I usually look at the abdomen size. Some I feed more, others I feed less to slow down their development. The tarantulas are in my bedroom and can't be anywhere else except on a really high shelf because of my dog which will otherwise kill them. It's pretty warm in my room now - above 70 F so everything's fine for now.

Hello again,
I decided not to start a new thread so I'll be posting here. A lot of things happened since I last wrote. So, now I still have only one female pulchra and no slings. She molted in may and is now 6" DLS. She's eaten two large female dubia roaches since then. A person contacted me and offered me to give me his male who will probably mature the next molt and in return I'll give him my balfouri sling. I'm not very happy with the fact that I have only one female, but it's a good deal. So, I have read a lot about breeding this species in the last months and here I'll write what I have learned. I'll be very happy if you give me some constructive criticism. So, I've read that we have to mimic the seasons in Brazil/Uruguay: rainy, warm summer and dry, colder winter. I checked the weather forecast in Brazil yesterday and for now it looks similar to the one in my country (Bulgaria). The summer is usually drier here but this year there is a lot of rainfall and the temperatures are similar, too (it's a bit colder here). According to the seasons here, I've made a plan how to keep her: she should be kept at normal room temperature from about April to October and after that she should be kept in a colder room from October to March. I started to mimic the seasons about a couple of months ago (actually, I only keep the moisture level higher). The temperature in the room now is in the low seventies and I periodically moisten the substrate to mimic rainfalls. After that I let it dry a bit and then moisten it again. The box I keep her in has a lot of ventilation. She doesn't like moisture and stays in her hide unless the substrate is completely dry. I'm planning to dry the substrate a bit with my desk lamp. Last night I hadn't moistened it for a long time and I think I poured too much water but It'll dry. My plan is to mate them in the fall (September - November) if the male has matured until then. I'll mate them several times if the female's receptive. After that, I'll put her in a cold room (about 15 degrees C) and I will feed her a lot. I'll put her in a heated room in March or April and will continue to feed her heavily. If I'm lucky enough, she should make a sac in the following months. I think I should move her in a bigger enclosure before I mate her and should make a starter burrow under a tree bark or something else. I'll also put fake plants. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

I think you are doing it all wrong, you better just send her to me. lol I have nothing informative to offer just that I want your big beautiful spider. lol

Thanks. She is beautiful:biggrin:

Prob over 8-10yrs+ IMO. Probably wild-caught?

ratluvr76 said:

I'm willing to bet she's considerably older then two to three yeasrs. Probably more like 6-8. A tarantula is nearly impossible to accurately guess age based on size there are too many variable conditions. Temperatures while growing, and food availability being the most influential in maturity rate. Unless you know yourself when she was hatched with accurate feeding and molting records, there really is no way to know. As far as how much longer she may live, Grammostola spp. Can live up to 20 or more years in captivity after their maturing molt for females. 12-18 months for males.

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Ultum4Spiderz said:

Prob over 8-10yrs+ IMO. Probably wild-caught?

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I have never heard of a WC pulchra before. However, I don't know how many years ago their export has been banned. I think she's young for this species because she grows pretty quickly and molts often when I feed her a lot. I'm not from the U.S. so maybe the situation here is different. I've written her story in the previous posts. Poec54 said that this species reaches 6". Well, mine is 6" and still growing but a lot of the females I have seen are a lot bigger than her. The male I'm going to get is pretty small... and he's six years old while my female molts every six months and grows a couple of centimeters every time...