Breeding Tarantulas - Understanding the Basics

Breeding tarantulas is something that takes plenty of skill and know how. Many amateurs attempt to breed tarantulas without first knowing what they are doing. This usually ends in one of three ways - either the male tarantula is eaten by the female, both spiders are injured or the amateur breeder gets lucky and they mate. If you notice, two of the three options are very poor ones. To have the best success breeding your tarantulas, you need to know how to do it properly.

The first thing is that tarantulas are not ready to breed at all times. Tarantulas go through what is called a moult. This is when the tarantula sheds their exterior and it has important meaning when it comes to breeding. If you breed a female tarantula to close to her moult, she will have no chance of laying eggs. You have to make certain that the female is at least six months away from a moult to give her the best chance to lay eggs. Also, older male tarantulas can be infertile so you must consider this as well. Tarantulas generally moult once per year.

Another consideration is that the female is much more aggressive and generally larger than the male. Female tarantulas are quick to make a meal of the breeding male tarantula if they are hungry. For this reason you shouldn't attempt to breed them unless you have given them a couple of weeks of steady feedings. This should help ensure that the male will be safe, but precautions should still be taken.

When you first place the male tarantula in the cage with the female, you should be ready with some type of separation device in case the female is not happy about the intrusion. A tall board of some type can be effective. Usually you can tell when the female and male tarantulas are going to breed. They will drum their front legs up and down in a little dance.

Once the male and female have bred, you need to immediately remove the male from the cage. The female will not be happy and feeling all maternal. Instead she will be quick to try to dispatch of the male. Remove the male tarantula from the cage immediately and place them back into their own container.

Breeding tarantulas is actually rather easy if you're careful about the things mentioned above.

Source:

"Breeding Tarantulas", The Tarantula Store