Archispirostreptus gigas
African Giant Millipede: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: For an African Giant Millipede, the substrate is a meal as well as a home. Build a deep bed of decomposed leaves and soft rotten hardwood, keep it damp without soaking it, and replenish the edible material as it is eaten. Give the animal room to burrow and leave buried millipedes alone.
Group: MillipedesDifficulty: Spice 1: Kid FriendlySetup: Deep, food-rich burrowing enclosure with a damp lower layerHandling: Brief, gentle contact is optional; keep the animal low over a soft surface and supervise children. Never pull it from a surface or force it to uncoil. Wash hands after contact or enclosure work.
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 75-78°F (about 24-26°C), following Cincinnati Zoo's keeper protocol. This is an institutional care range, not a tested tolerance limit. |
|---|---|
| Humidity | No fixed humidity % target. Keep sheltered litter and the lower substrate damp, not dripping or waterlogged. Check below the surface before adding water, moisten a section at a time, and leave ventilation open. Avoid both a completely dried-out bed and standing water. |
| Setup Type | Deep, food-rich burrowing enclosure with a damp lower layer |
| Substrate | Use pesticide-free soil or humus containing plenty of decomposed hardwood leaves and very soft rotten hardwood. As a general millipede planning rule, provide substrate at least as deep as the longest animal is long, with extra depth where needed to retain a damp burrowing area. Coir alone is not a food supply. |
| Feeding | Keep decomposed leaves and soft rotten hardwood available continuously; replace them as they are eaten. Small portions of vegetables can supplement this base, not replace it. Remove spoiled or uneaten supplements before they foul the substrate. |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 1: Kid Friendly |
| Handling | Brief, gentle contact is optional; keep the animal low over a soft surface and supervise children. Never pull it from a surface or force it to uncoil. Wash hands after contact or enclosure work. |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Small animals: Baby Buddy or Burrow Buddy only while there is enough edible depth, floor area and moisture retention for the actual animals.
- Larger animals: use a deep custom enclosure when a Buddy cannot provide the body-length-based substrate depth and adequate floor space.
- Mixed-size groups need food and sheltered access for the smallest animals as well as space for the largest; there is no fixed count that fits every box.
Warnings First
- Never dig up a buried millipede just to check whether it is alive.
- Do not let the edible substrate run out; fresh vegetables cannot replace decomposed leaf and wood food.
- Keep millipedes and their defensive fluids away from eyes and mouth; wash hands after contact.
- Avoid pesticides, treated wood and contaminated soil. Do not seal the enclosure to chase a humidity reading.
Simple Care
- Prepare edible substrate before the animals arrive; a plain display floor is not enough.
- Keep damp shelter available without saturating the whole enclosure.
- Check the food layer regularly and replace consumed leaves and wood.
- Use a secure ventilated lid; very small animals need escape-resistant openings.
- Leave buried animals and possible molt chambers undisturbed.
- Remove spoiled supplemental food while leaving healthy occupied substrate in place.
- Provide a shallow, accessible water dish and keep it clean.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Use an enclosure that lets every animal move under cover and reach food without crowding. For larger millipedes, a floor at least two animal lengths long and one animal length wide is a published planning rule; groups need additional usable space and food substrate.
- Provide lightweight cork or leaf cover that will not collapse onto a burrowing animal. Keep a sheltered damp area while allowing air exchange above the food layer.
- Moisture should be present below the surface, not as pooled water. Add water gradually to an unoccupied section and reassess rather than soaking the entire bed.
- Renew substrate in sections and add fresh edible material as needed. Preserve occupied areas, eggs and tiny young instead of routinely emptying the whole enclosure.
- A shallow dish provides an additional drinking point. Keep its edge accessible; do not rely on deep open water or a claim that stones make every dish risk-free.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Use well-decomposed hardwood leaves and wood soft enough to crumble. A decorative fresh branch is not equivalent to rotten feeding wood.
- Check for actual consumption and the buildup of fine waste. Replenish edible material before the substrate becomes mostly droppings.
- Offer only small supplemental portions and remove any that spoil. A container full of fresh fruit is not a complete diet.
- Keep buried areas stable during molts. Do not excavate to offer food or remove an animal because it has stopped appearing on the surface.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Eastern Africa, from Mozambique to Kenya, mainly toward the coast. No collection locality is confirmed for this stock.
- Habitat translation: Translate the animal's ground-dwelling, burrowing life into deep decomposed plant material, sheltered cover and access to moisture. This is a captive setup, not a claim that all source habitats share one humidity reading.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Substrate condition and food availability matter more than a display schedule. Leave active burrowing areas intact when refreshing the enclosure.