Arachnid
03-19-2005, 04:34 PM
I'm just developing an interest in keeping PDFs, but I am a long time keeper of tarantulas with breeding experience, and the reading I've been doing over the past week or so has raised several questions in my mind regarding standard practices of keeping and breeding PDFs.
First off, unless I am mistaken, it seems that when people on this board talk about breeding pairs, the frogs in question are usually (if not always) siblings. When breeding tarantulas it is extremely important to avoid mating related subjects because the offspring down the line will suffer anything from deformities to sterility, or simply not survive to maturity due to various complications arising from genetic problems. There have repeatedly been bloodlines of high priced and highly prized species that have turned out to be of very poor genetic quality, most of which have died prior to maturity, and inbreeding has been highly suspected as the cause. Of course, with tarantulas, the males mature in a year or two in most species, dying shortly afterward, while their female siblings are not ready to breed until they are about 3-5 years old and can live as long as 20+ years, which naturally prevents inbreeding between siblings but does little to prevent breeders from using male offspring to breed the mother again a couple years later. In the arachnid keeping community this is HIGHLY frowned upon for obvious reasons, and I'm wondernig if the same simply doesn't hold true in the PDF keeping community? It strikes me as a potental cause for some of the breeding problems that are being addressed here.
Another issue that has me wondering is the concept of meadow sweepings... Also highly frowned upon in the arachnid keeping community, as many flying insects can and do travel tens of miles, or even hundreds of miles in some cases, in the course of their lives, simply sweeping a field where there is no chance of pesticides or other contaminant within a couple miles at the most certainly does not ensure pesticide free or otherwise contaminant free insects are being fed to your pets. With frogs being one of the most highly sensative creatures on the planet when it comes to polution, this also strikes me as a potentially counterproductive method of keeping potential breeding stock.
One more thing I'm wondering about is a intro post by Dr. Frye... In your post you indicate that the VAST majority of PDFs have various parasitic worms in their digestive tracts and recommend a particular med for it if fecal samples collected in quarantine show the presence of worm eggs. I'd appriciate more direct info on where to obtain this medication, doesages (amount and frequency) and the average cost of treatment if you don't mind. As I only intend to have a few PDFs in one vivarium, it seems logical to simply purchase them all at once, then quaranteen and treat them prior to introducing them to their new home just in case, considering the percentages mentioned of tested PDFs having some sort of intestinal worm parasitism.
Please correct me is I am off base on any of these matters.
Thanks,
Allen
First off, unless I am mistaken, it seems that when people on this board talk about breeding pairs, the frogs in question are usually (if not always) siblings. When breeding tarantulas it is extremely important to avoid mating related subjects because the offspring down the line will suffer anything from deformities to sterility, or simply not survive to maturity due to various complications arising from genetic problems. There have repeatedly been bloodlines of high priced and highly prized species that have turned out to be of very poor genetic quality, most of which have died prior to maturity, and inbreeding has been highly suspected as the cause. Of course, with tarantulas, the males mature in a year or two in most species, dying shortly afterward, while their female siblings are not ready to breed until they are about 3-5 years old and can live as long as 20+ years, which naturally prevents inbreeding between siblings but does little to prevent breeders from using male offspring to breed the mother again a couple years later. In the arachnid keeping community this is HIGHLY frowned upon for obvious reasons, and I'm wondernig if the same simply doesn't hold true in the PDF keeping community? It strikes me as a potental cause for some of the breeding problems that are being addressed here.
Another issue that has me wondering is the concept of meadow sweepings... Also highly frowned upon in the arachnid keeping community, as many flying insects can and do travel tens of miles, or even hundreds of miles in some cases, in the course of their lives, simply sweeping a field where there is no chance of pesticides or other contaminant within a couple miles at the most certainly does not ensure pesticide free or otherwise contaminant free insects are being fed to your pets. With frogs being one of the most highly sensative creatures on the planet when it comes to polution, this also strikes me as a potentially counterproductive method of keeping potential breeding stock.
One more thing I'm wondering about is a intro post by Dr. Frye... In your post you indicate that the VAST majority of PDFs have various parasitic worms in their digestive tracts and recommend a particular med for it if fecal samples collected in quarantine show the presence of worm eggs. I'd appriciate more direct info on where to obtain this medication, doesages (amount and frequency) and the average cost of treatment if you don't mind. As I only intend to have a few PDFs in one vivarium, it seems logical to simply purchase them all at once, then quaranteen and treat them prior to introducing them to their new home just in case, considering the percentages mentioned of tested PDFs having some sort of intestinal worm parasitism.
Please correct me is I am off base on any of these matters.
Thanks,
Allen