http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/.....Picture186.jpg

Everyone always suggests two weeks, but these two share a tank with a piece of cardboard splitting it in half and had been both staying right next to it on opposite sides majority of the time. When I fed Lena to-day, she gorged on a huge cricket and I allowed him to go into her half if he wanted. He watched her eat for a couple hours until she was full to bursting (or so it looked!) and then quite suddenly, after she was finished, leapt onto her.

It scared me so bad, I shot up out of my chair when I heard the scrambling. I was sure she had grabbed ahold of him and was going to eat him too if I didn't act fast. Lucky for me, he was just LEAPING onto her and scrambling around, since he managed to do so.. backwards. HE immediately connected and they have been sitting in the same spot, stone still, ever since. I'm quite thrilled with this, of course.

I am happy that they're mating, and doing so now, so that I can wait up with them (I hope!) and separate afterwards before bed. I've heard of the male riding on the female's back for hours or days before connecting, but Red Eyes was wasting absolutely no time in doing what he had to do. This way I don't have to leave them unsupervised and I can save him from a gruesome fate. I'd like to give the little guy his meal right afterwards, best case scenario. I have fresh crickets for him as his reward, haha!

We'll see. I'm just happy for this all to be going so smoothly thus far. Much luck and crossed fingers.