How to Successfully Sexed a Tarantula-Using its Exovium

Most of us who are new to the hobby, which is keeping inverts as pets, would hope that our newly bought tarantulas are female. For the fact that they are bigger in size and the most important thing is that they lived way too longer than the males.I am not good at ventral sexing and there's a much more accurate method of sexing a tarantula that would not give us false hopes and huge expectations in the end. So , I've decided to make a video regarding on how to successfully sexed a tarantula using its exovium or its molt. I think this would help anyone in the hobby especially before deciding to buy a tarantula as some of the sellers would say it's a female or it does look like one.So, I would best recommend to ask for its exovium as well,  in buying a "female" tarantula as a proof that it's really a female. I think everybody in the hobby should know how to sexed a tarantula for future references. Nobody will do it for you , so probably it would be helpful for you to try it now and save all your tarantulas' molt. But what ever the outcome would be ,whether it's a male or a female, I would love them more because I already know what name best fits them. lol. So here's the link on how to successfully sexed a tarantula. "How to Successfully Sexed a Tarantula-Using its Exovium". It's my first tutorial video and I hope you'll still appreciate it. Thank you and happy "tarantula" keeping!  :)


Here it is. Enjoy watching. :)

Breeding Project- Brachypelma Albopilosum-gravid or not?

I have a newly acquired adult pair of brachypelma albopilosum or the honduran curly hair. The matured male had its ultimate molt last 1st week of February and built its sperm web 3 weeks after he molted. While my female b. albo recently molted last March 15, the same year with the male.My male b.albo has an approx. diagonal leg span of 6 inches while the female has a post-molt size of 5.5 inches.

The first mating attempt was done last March 25, which was 10 days after the female had successfully molted. She ate few dubia roaches before the said attempt. I put the male into the female's tank, after that the male did not show any signs of courting such as drumming or shaking as what I've seen in those tarantula's mating videos . He knew that there was an adult female in the tank. The female was caught unprepared and unguarded as she just finished her meal. The male was able to get hold of the female's fangs but I am not sure if there was really an insertion happened . As it was my first time, I was shocked and very nervous and was just staring on those two big fangs of the female. hahaha! But I was able to see the male busy rubbing his palps into the female and did it many times while he was able to hook the female's fangs with its front legs, using its hooks of course. He manages to go home safely and back to his tank.  A week after the first mating attempt, I tried to pair them again but the female is in a threat pose position every time the male is in her tank, and the male simply understands what those pose means so he simply went back to his tank. I tried to mate them again and again,more or less around 5 times, with 3-5 days interval or every after the male has built a sperm web. But the female is not interested to make love with him anymore. So I decided to stop because it was too stressful for the both of them and too tiring on my part too.

The female's rump is now getting bigger, but I cannot tell if she's just fat or already gravid. The only way to confirm that is when I will be able to see some egg sac or heavy webbing on her tank. The only thing I can do now is to wait and be patient. If it was not successful then maybe I have to try it again. I am not sure if it was a successful one, but I believe and confident enough that my male b. albo did his very best. Good luck and more years to come for my bravest male albo (hoping) hahaha! . =)