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Not if you can help it. Usually breeders will keep a wooden spoon or a large paintbrush handy to seperate them if it looks like the female is going to munch him. Usually though they just seperate on their own. It is just a precaution breeders take to ensure the female doesn't go after him. Sometimes she bites him before they seperate, in that case there is nothing you can do.

But munching the male can be a good thing. In breedings that I have seen the male made off quite easily, but many of the pairings were unsucsessful. Through my readings and reasearch I theorize that if the female munches the male it is a good sign that the mating was sucsessful, because she is lookign for a large meal to help nourish her growing eggs. I've had breeders say that in pairings where the male was munched the egg count was higher than in pairings where the male was not eaten.

So either way really. If the male dies it could be a good sign, but if he lives then he gets the chance at being sucsessful with another female.
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KJ Vezino
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Missouri Tarantula Enthusiasts Group

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