Anybody Ever Bred G. pulchra?

[Tortoise Tom]

A friend just brought me a recently matured male, and my 13 year old female just molted last week. I'm planning on feeding her up and letting him settle in for a couple of weeks before introduction, but any tips or insight is welcome.

Coincidentally, I'm just about to introduce my male and female GBB too. All advice is welcome.

 

[Phil]

A friend of mine is trying G pulchra atm. 2 attempts to date with no interest from either the Male or female.

I tend to try one of 2 methods. 1. breeding enclosure where the Male and female are divided. usually they are kept in that set up for a couple of weeks to "recognise" the presence if each other or 2. Just let the Male wander in to the established female enclosure.

I usually prefer method 1 as I can make sure the breeding enclosure is easily accessible and have little in terms of decorations or areas where the Male could get trapped and chomped in the event of an accident. Although both work well.

Here is the last pairing I did before going on holiday (method 1 as you can probably see from the video anyway)

 

[Theneil]

I have a female i believe is gravid from my pairing in the fall. I have a second female who was paired but molted out. Did not repair her though due to molt complications.

the non molted female is huge ATM and a couple months ago i candles and it looked like there was a little glow. she is much larger now so i am just waiting....


Pairing was easy and pairing of both females went basically the same. No real taping or anything, but when the males leg touched the females leg the both quickly reacted (scared me a bit. LOL) and immediately hooked up. Pairing was brief and after, both the male and the female were peaceable. No aggression from either.

 

[Theneil]

Probably 2 month old pic. i have not candled her again since she put on a lot of mass.

recent picture.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

Well I paired them up today. The female's enclosure is pretty big and wide open, so I let the male take his time and walk into her enclosure. All looked good. They stood like this for about 30 minutes:

Then they quickly moved to this and this:

They were moving relatively slowly and all seemed to be progressing as it should. Then, in one deft maneuver, she pulled some sort of karate move, flipped him to his side and sunk her fangs deep into his abdomen before I could even flinch.

Here is what a MM Grammostola pulchra food bolus looks like:

I'm pretty sure he did the deed before she got him. Those palps were going to town under there and I saw an insertion and a pause twice before she decided to make a feast of him. Time will tell...

 

[Theneil]

Well I paired them up today. The female's enclosure is pretty big and wide open, so I let the male take his time and walk into her enclosure. All looked good. They stood like this for about 30 minutes:
View attachment 37973

Then they quickly moved to this and this:
View attachment 37974
View attachment 37975


They were moving relatively slowly and all seemed to be progressing as it should. Then, in one deft maneuver, she pulled some sort of karate move, flipped him to his side and sunk her fangs deep into his abdomen before I could even flinch.
View attachment 37976

Here is what a MM Grammostola pulchra food bolus looks like:
View attachment 37977

I'm pretty sure he did the deed before she got him. Those palps were going to town under there and I saw an insertion and a pause twice before she decided to make a feast of him. Time will tell...

Got my fingers crossed for ya. Sucks he got munched, but at least he got it in first.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

More than 24 hours later and she's still eating the poor bastard...

 

[Theneil]

A lasting relation ship...