# Lets talk egg-sacks.....Tarantula egg-sacks



## Olly Sapsford

So, what do you guys and gals do? Do you leave your egg-sacks with mum or to you incubate yourselves? 

If you incubate, how do you do it?


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## Josh R

Videos posted by Robc's Online Tarantula Store: Mechanical Mom in action (time-lapse video) [HQ] | Facebook


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## selina20

I leave them with mum unless she abandons it


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## Craig Mackay

I tend to leave it with mum for between 3 and 6+ weeks depending on species and how much of a reputation the species has for eating sacs. If you leave the sac with mum until the eggs have moulted to at least the 1st nymph stage (a fair bit of guess work is involved), with a good incubator set up, you'll have an equally, if not higher level of success.​ 
An incubator is really easy to set up and it's really not necessary to go to the ridiculous lengths of making fancy "mechanical moms" like RobC's. All you need is a large tupperware sandwich box and a slightly smaller box that will fit inside. Take the lid of the smaller box and fill it half full with water, cut a pair of tights to size and slide over the box to make a hammock. Tuck under or tie off either end of the tights so that they can't climb in. Put some kitchen/bog roll on the sides and bottom of the bigger box to soak up any condensation (which could drown the nymphs when they get mobile) and put the smaller box in. The contents of the sac can then be evenly distributed over the tights. Don't worry about ventilation as it's important to contain the humidity and prevent any nasties getting inside. There's more than enough air in the box for them and if you open it every day to have a look in on them then you'll allow fresh air in to prevent it going stagnant.​ 
Everyone has their own methods and preferences but I prefer to pull the sacs for a number of reasons. In the sac, if an egg goes bad and moulds it can quickly affect the eggs close by and ruin a sac. With an incubator you can remove any bad eggs as they appear and keep them all nicely seperated. Also, you won't have to deal with slings escaping all over your house if you've underestimated a slings ability to squeeze through even the smallest of ventilation holes. A pair of tights wrapped tightly over the mums enclosure will stop that though. Of course, mum knows best most of the time so I feels it's important to leave the sac with mum for at least 4 weeks. She'll move it around to seperate the eggs and maintain the correct temps/humidity etc the best that she can with the conditions she's been given to work with.​


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## Olly Sapsford

So it seems that the poll i tried to make didn't work:censor::censor::censor:

Oh well! 

WHat temps do you keep your incubator at?


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## PeterUK

How to make a simple incubator like Craigs . .  LINK


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## dragon's den

i incubate them exactly as craig described, i pull the sac at 23 days and spill it out to have a butchers, if i had left the subfusca sac a few days longer im convinced it would have started to go downhill, i incubate at high 70s to low 80s at 90% humidity or thereabouts, i use exo terra hygro thermometer but it eats batteries for dinner for some strange reason


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## garlicpickle

I leave them with mum for several weeks unless she abandons it. i let my P. cambridgei hatch the sac last year. When she opened the sac at 6 weeks the babies were at N2, so I removed mum and took the spiderlings and the web they were on and put the whole lot in a separate tub next to mum's tank. No losses.
I recently took a sac from my P. subfusca highland at 12 weeks! and they were at N2, so i've done the same, just put them in a tub on some of the web from her tank. I'm waiting for them to moult to slings, should be any day. Again no losses so far.

At N2, the babies are much hardier and there's no need for a special incubator as they are mobile anyway.

On 2 occasions I pulled early, my P. fasciata dumped the sac at 3 weeks, it contained a mixture of eggs and EWLs and most of them didn't survive, only 15 out of about 100 eggs. Also pulled a L. megatheloides sac at 3 weeks because I panicked not knowing how long it would take to hatch, again mostly eggs and a few EWLs and only had 2 survive. Both times the eggs got wet in the incubator. It's hard to keep the humidity correct in an incubator which is why I now leave mum to do the hard work.


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## Becky

I started off by pulling and incubating... now i just leave them with mum full term and pull out either the N2's or slings. Unless mummy spider drops the sac, in which case i pull, open and incubate on a tupperware tub with the middle of the lid cut out and mesh stretched over it, water in the bottom of the tub and then this inside another tub/faunarium and either sat on the same shelf as mum or inside a polybox on a mat and stat 

I have had far better results when leaving the sacs to be hatched by mum though


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## george dobson

i used to pull them but i always ended up having to roll them about which got quite annoying id say just leave it with the mum as she does all the hard work, you just need to keep the humidity and temps right


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## Poxicator

The trick is figuring when the eggs will have turned to N1 or preferably N2 stage as this increases the chance of success. Pulling when they are eggs is very likely to suffer losses.
The duration of the sac is dependent on the species and temperatures. The higher the temperature the quicker they are likely to develop but it must be balanced with avoiding dessication.
Leaving the sac with mum has its dangers as explained above but I wouldn't consider removing the sac before 4 weeks unless I felt something was wrong. It can be infuriating to lose a sac at this stage so you should keep disturbance down to a minimum.
Sacs that are pulled before 4 weeks will require turning if you decide to leave the eggs in the sac, this is to ensure the weight doesnt squash those at the bottom and impact on their growth. However if the remove them from the sac you do not need to turn them. Personally I use a soft artists brush to ensure they're not stuck to the hammock and to avoid them sticking together.
I'd check breeding reports in the variety of sites for temps/humidity levels as well as duration according to species.


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## No Fur No Feathers

My Acanthoscurria geniculata laid a sac which was pulled 30 days was told should be EWL's but all are eggs with large white spots.

She kept leaving the egg sac and stared to lay on it in the cold spot.

compared to my Psalmopoeus reduncus egg sac that was EWL's at day 30 who became N2-N3 in 4 days after pulling


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