Moving Day - Hyde

We had several slings / juveniles that were outgrowing their space, so we had a moving day. Here are the photos from Hyde's (Lasiodora difficilis) move.

Tiny - not so tiny

I can not believe I haven't updated about Tiny (Acanthoscurria geniculata) since May of last year! Complicated pregnancy will do that, though. When we got Tiny, we got several different slings and this one was the tiniest of the bunch, without a doubt. We received it in a vial. We still have the vial!

Just as you read on care sheets, Brazilian Whiteknees are voracious eaters and we've thoroughly enjoyed watching Tiny wrestle with food! We recently moved Tiny into a larger enclosure.

Sometimes I just set the deli or spice cup (or whatever they are in) into the new cage and leave the spiders to adjust in their own time. Tiny set to work immediately and made his old home a part of his new home!

His burrow is actually fairly intricate. You can peek in from either side, which is convenient. You can shine a light on one side and peek from the other. However, in the middle, the hold turns and goes into the middle of the cage. We had no idea for a while as to how far, since he didn't dig along the bottom of the cage like some of our pets have done. Now he has dug a small hole up to the surface, though. It is pretty far down from the main burrow entrances.

Tiny is no longer the smallest of our collection. The Curly Hairs are slower growing. Tiny has definitely become a favorite of the collection with his new burrow and his pretty stripes.

SFB - No More

Señor Fuzzy Britches proved himself to be male when he built a sperm web. I tried to find someone that needed a male Curly Hair (Brachypelma albopilosum) for mating, but it is such a common species that I couldn't find any takers. They do make for good starter pets.

And so... he passed. I totally understand the majorly short life span of male tarantulas in comparison to females now. Males will stop eating once they are ready to mate. They just kind of whither away. Here is my photo dedication to Señor Fuzzy Britches:

Goodbye Tears

I am way overdue on some updates. We've moved twice and had another (human) baby since my last update. I've been meaning to get back over here, but it is hard to find time with two little humans under foot (plus I stay busy on my other blog). Spiders are so much easier! I did, however, get a little prod of inspiration this week. Stan Schultz, co-author of The Tarantula Keeper's Guide, emailed me requesting permission to link a couple of my photos from this blog. I was so excited and flattered! He was glad to inspire my return to the blog as well.

The photos he will be linking (on a care sheet on relative humidity with regard to tarantula care) were of silk turrets made by our Cobalt Blue (Haplopelma lividium), Tears. She turned out to be a he and passed away before our last move. He did stay hidden so much that we're not sure how long he was dead before we noticed. He was a gorgeous specimen.

And so, in honor of Tears, and perhaps a new tradition for this blog, here are all of my photos of him. These are unedited and not cropped - just resized for posting. (I usually crop to just the good bits.) I'm also posting these in case Stan would rather use any of my other silk turret photos. I had not posted all of them. Perhaps I can get some publishing advice from him as well! I have a partially-written basics book on tarantulas. I could use some inspiration there, too, but have another project I need to finish first.

Without further ado, here are my Tears photos:

Sperm Web!

I had read about how male tarantulas use sperm webs, but I've never witnessed any of my specimens build or use one... until today!

Señor Fuzzy Britches using his Sperm Web
First Stage

You can see the white dot above his abdomen ~ that is the sperm. He also seemed to be preparing his pedipalps for it. I even have video for you!