Menagerie Update

We lost another Costa Rican Tiger Rump so we're down to only 1 of those. We literally seem to have lost it. We can't find it in the dish. It is as if the meal worm ate it. Elmo has laid claim to the Brazilian Whiteknee, so I've decided the Tiger Rump is mine. The rest, so far, are still "ours."

We did get the tiny meal worms and that has been an adventure. You have to dig them out of the sawdust in the little bowl and you get about 100 of them. The tiny worms are larger than some of the spiderlings! Our Elmo's Brazilian White really put up a fight with one! It was moving him around instead of vice versa. He was still winning, though! That was the 2nd time we fed him. He molted after the first feeding.

After the first round of feedings, we decided that the Brazilian Fire Reds are big enough to ¹⁾ be moved into larger dishes and ²⁾ be fed small crickets! So this weekend we picked up more substrate to put in King's cage (in an attempt to prevent further broken limbs once he molts), 3 dozen large crickets for our big kids, and 1 dozen small crickets for these particular babies.

Brazilian Fire Red

I moved these two into larger cages last night. By morning, one of them had dug a good tunnel along the edge of the bowl. We have been so lucky with burrows being dug against the sides of habitats so we can see into them! Only trouble is that Tears (Cobalt Blue) has now covered her windows with web.

My Curly Hair (not a sling) has had a great burrow dug from one side of the cage, to the end, around to the other side. He had been staying out a lot, though. Then this week we discovered that the "end" of his burrow fell in (or was dug through). Now his burrow has an entrance and an exit. I want to add more substrate, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do so since his burrow is under so much of the surface.

The bigger babies did just fine with 3-4 small crickets each today. We also gave all the spiderlings one tiny meal worm each. This is feeding #2 for us with all the new babies. Once his Whiteknee molts again, I think we'll have to move it into a larger cup... but not much larger. I'm amazed at how FAST all of these kids are, too!

I need to put some dimes in with each of the babies so that I can (hopefully) catch photos of them for size-reference. You can see a shot of my first spiderling on a dime here.

Found Breeder... New Pets!

Tuesday I found out that one of the drivers at work breeds tarantulas! Turns out, he has 2,000 of them!! Not only that, but then he offered to bring me some! So today he handed me a plastic container full of deli cups! Here are the contents:

0.0.1 Acanthoscurria geniculata (Brazilian Whiteknee)
0.0.4 Cyclosternum fasciatum (Costa Rican Tiger Rump)
0.0.3 Grammastola aureostriatum (Chaco Golden Knee)
0.0.2 Lasiodora difficilis (Brazilian Fire Red)
0.0.2 Brachypelma albopilosum (Curly Hair)
0.0.2 Poecilotheria regalis (Indian Ornamental)
0.0.1 Heteroscodra maculata (Ornamental Baboon)

0.0.1 Orthoporus ornatus (Desert Millipede)

This means we tripled our menagerie instantly! They all (except the Gold Knees) have price tags on them, but he gave them to me! They are all (except for the millipede) slings. Several of them are TIIIINY, but some are a little larger. One Golden Knee appears to have not survived the trip. It also looks like one of the Tiger Rumps died before I got it. I'll check on them more closely tomorrow. We'll be fetching meal worms tomorrow, I guess.

This guy also plans to bring me a couple adult male Rose Hairs to attempt mating with our Rose Hairs. No charge. I even asked, if my girls kill them, no charge? He just hopes we'll get some slings out of them. Like I said, he is a breeder and has 2,000 spiders! He also sells snakes. I asked how long it takes him to water his spiders. He said it takes about 4 days of 6-8 hours straight watering! He only does it once per month, though, so that helps.

I am SO excited to have found a LOCAL breeder! And talk about service, personal delivery... and FREE (so far)! We may purchase spiders from him in the future, but this was just such an amazing surprise! I was bouncing off the walls at work!

---

Upon further examination, 2 Tiger Rumps and 1 Gold Knee were DOA. I'm glad we still have some of each left.

Pet Update

King (Goliath Bird Eater) has broken his hind / right leg. It is broken about half way down and still attached. My husband was pretty worried at first, but I'm sure he'll be fine. We're waiting and watching for a molt and he is keeping the humidity high.

Since we moved him into the aquarium, he had been climbing the corners. He would sometimes get his foot stuck in the mesh lid.

King
Theraphosa blondi
(Goliath Bird Eater)

Chaos (Rose Hair) finally molted! She did it pretty quickly and while we weren't watching. Her color is brighter and beautiful!

Exterminator

we got a notice on our door that exterminators will be entering our apartment TOMORROW - UNACCEPTABLE! We have arachnids as pets and crickets as food, we can not have an exterminator in here spraying poison all over the place! Talk about short notice! I didn't have ANY time to find a temporary home for the spiders! On our way to scouts, I called the office and left a message with the answering service. They were REALLY nice and understanding about the issue! Still, I expect to have to argue it in the morning. I'm glad we don't ever leave our apartment unattended because we need to be here to bar entry! It seems like awfully short notice anyway, considering they want us to empty our cabinets, too.

---

The apartment office was actually really great about our declining the pest control. They simply took our apartment off the list. Thankfully, I haven't seen any bugs before or since, so it should be a non-issue.