General Update

Sorry for the gap in updates, folks. We've had a few health issues and even deaths in our [human] family in the past few months. It really put our hobby on the back burner.

You missed our Indian Ornamental (Punjab) molting again already. We may have to move it into a bigger jar again soon! None of the photos came out very clear, too much glare off the glass jar.

Tears (Cobalt Blue) spent about 4 days straight (day and night!) working on a new hole. It is larger than her original burrow. Then she retreated back to her original hole and we haven't seen her since! We're used to her hiding, but we're getting a little worried. Hopefully she'll peek out soon.

We got Hyde (Brazilian Fire Red) moved into a larger container that holds moisture much better than the previous dish. We won't be using that one for pets anymore, though we may use it as a temporary spot for small crickets. Hyde has just started moving dirt around in the last couple of days.

My Curly Hair (S.F.B.) has finally been moving dirt and digging in his new cage. I noticed today that his abdomen coloring looks different. I think he(?) may molt again soon!

Pretty much all the "kids" are looking fat and sassy, especially the babies! We're currently trying the larger spiders on Super Worms. They are an option we can keep on hand for longer than crickets. Everyone seems to like them alright. We just have to be careful not to let them burrow into the dirt. This is slightly limiting, but they're pretty fat so we can give one at a time. Even Jekyll and Hyde have managed them!

Jekyll after winning the fight against a Super Worm

Butch... Hanzo

Our friend has chosen a new name for our old Butch. He is now Hanzo Hasashi (Scorpion's alter ego name in Mortal Kombat). We all call him Hanzo for short. So he had a friend with 5 pinky mice and no use. He took them over for Hanzo. One, then two were put in with Hanzo and while he did seem to notice, he wasn't showing a lot of interest. By this morning, however, he finally snagged one. As of this evening, he let it go and snagged the other.

Butch Hanzo - considering a pinky
Heterometrus longimanus
Asian Forest Scorpion

Punjab in New Home

Saturday night, I got our friend Brandon to wiggle a mini meal worm through the holes at the top! It was pretty funny. Shortly thereafter, we were trying to figure out where the worm went. Then Punjab came down from the top as if to show us that he had things well in hand. lol

Punjab
Indian Ornamental
Poecilotheria regalis

Sunday afternoon, I found this...

Punjab
Indian Ornamental
Poecilotheria regalis

This had us cracking up!

Food Problems + Molt!

Monday evening I opened the meal worms to find... they were HUGE! I should have taken a picture. They were bigger than the babies! So Tuesday I had to take them back. That pet store doesn't carry MINI meal worms. So I returned them, picked up a couple of watering dishes, and then had to go up the street to another pet store to purchase mini meal worms. The clay dishes we've been using don't actually hold water, they just leech it through to the dirt.

Chaco Golden Knee Molted

Elmo also noticed that the other Chaco molted. He thought it was dead at first because it was curled up. I thought both Chacos had molted, but I guess only one had. They are the same size again.

Bought Food, Lots of Food

We bought 36 large crickets, 12 small crickets, and a dish of 50 meal worms today from the pet store. After feeding all the big kids (6 tarantulas + 1 scorpion, close to 30 crickets total), we still have 36 large crickets left! After feeding 5 small crickets to the big babies, we still have 12 small crickets left. The larger the number you request, the more likely you are to get more than that. It seems to increase exponentially. Truthfully, it is really hard to count large numbers of crickets. They are wiggly buggers! Our dish of 100 meal worms didn't last as long as we'd expected. We had a lot of dead ones. We have 5 live ones left, so I just got the 50 pack today.

I also bought some fake vine stuff for lizards. I've got some new habitats set up for the arboreal babies. I do NOT know how I'm going to move them yet, but I do know I'll have to refrigerate them first. They are crazy fast! I went ahead and gave them both meal worms last night, but it can be hard to tell if they ate them since they burrow right into the dirt. I did give one of them a small cricket today, too.

Video!

I had been waiting for Tigger to molt and today I realized he already had. I'm not sure how recently, but I realized that the last several times I'd checked on him he looked the same as he does now. He just didn't get very much bigger.

I've taken a few short videos before, but this is the first time I got a good one! I'm pretty excited about getting it. This is 1½ minutes of a very, very tiny Costa Rican Tiger Rump (Cyclosternum fasciatum) ~ still the smallest of our collection. Tigger is fighting with a small meal worm.

Tigger, fighting with dinner

Thirds?

Thats right. About 4-5 crickets died in the cricket box, but that still left quite a few large crickets waiting to be eaten. We'll wait about 2 weeks before buying large crickets again.

I caught 1 at a time and gave 10-11 to King. It was funny, he was actually catching each one shortly after I dropped them into his cage.

After giving King 10-11 crickets, there were still 6 left. I compared the size of the Lasiodora difficilis vs. the crickets and decided the crickets were small enough. I started with #1, who doesn't hide. I didn't even have to refrigerate first. The spider started out running from the cricket, but still attacked it within a minute. He didn't seem to have any trouble, though I did find him in a defensive post, holding the cricket.

Lasiodora difficilis
Brazilian Fire Red

I dropped one in with #2 and left them alone for a bit. This spider was, of course, hiding in the burrow after having the bowl opened. When I checked back, the cricket was dead in the burrow, though the tarantula wasn't eating it. I don't know what was up with that. I've left them alone in this dark room now, so I hope the T will chow.

I then dropped 1 at a time in with Señor Fuzzy Britches. He snagged both crickets. I dropped the last 2 crickets into the cage with Tears. Her burrow is still covered with web at the top.

Feeding Day - Brazilian Fire Red ~ #1

I recently posted a molting photo update on Brazilian Fire Red #2. Brazilian Fire Red #1 is the one that I have to refrigerate for a few minutes before I even open the dish. This one is real fast and will go for the opening of the container!

Lasiodora difficilis
Brazilian Fire Red
Dinner!

I gave each Brazilian Fire Red small crickets. They had no problem with this prey! This photo is also the new species pic on the Gallery Page.

Moving / Feeding Day - Indian Ornamental

This is was our Indian Ornamental's habitat:

Poecilotheria regalis
Icky Habitat

It looks gross. You can see a couple of mold spots, plus it looks like there might be some mold in the lid, an old meal worm carcass, and there is an old skin. It definitely needed cleaning or something! I am loving the new dishes I got, so I prepped one for this lil guy, even though they aren't much larger.

Feeding Day - Amounts

We don't want the extra crickets to go to waste again. There are 1 or 2 large crickets that have died already. You can see the first course here. Here was "seconds" I fed tonight:

Anansi - ate everything - gave her 2 more crickets, which she immediately took

Chaos - ate everything - gave her 2 more crickets, I think she already has them both

Señor Fuzzy Britches - ate everything - gave 2 more crickets, which were immediately taken

King - he may have 1 cricket still loose and hiding, but he did attack immediately after feeding last night. He is on the lid already tonight (his favorite night time activity) so I couldn't feed him.

Tears - has 1 cricket (of 4) loose so I did not offer more food. I did not remove this cricket, though. I did see that she was higher in her hidey hole and she has also webbed over the top again.

Butch - apparently did eat his 1 cricket. He won't usually eat unless you throw food right into his face. In an attempt to do that through the top door (not the whole lid off) tonight, I dropped the cricket outside the cage! I did catch it and manage to throw it right in front of him. He grabbed it immediately, yay!

Ghost - is looking faaaat and got 4 crickets the other night, so I opted out of feeding her. I hope she'll molt for Elmo soon.

Sling Feeding Day - Amounts

Gotta feed the Slings!

Both Chaco Golden Knees (Grammostola pulchripes)molted! So I didn't feed them. Pictures coming soon. I still have photo posts to do from the other night! I've taken well over 100 photos through the weekend!

I fed each of the Curly Hair Slings (Brachypelma albopilosum) 1 meal worm each. One of them is shy and has a tunnel with 2 entrance/exits. I got photos of these, too.

The Brazilian Whiteknee (Acanthoscurria geniculata) is SO fast! I had to refrigerate for 4 minutes before feeding. I gave Tiny 1 meal worm. I couldn't entice him to attack, even after waiting a bit. I did get pics, though!

My Costa Rican Tiger Rump (Cyclosternum fasciatum) is also very fast and has to be refrigerated for 4 minutes. I gave her 1 meal worm. I tried to entice here, too, but No Go and now the worm is hiding in the dirt somewhere. I'm sure it will peak up and get eaten, though.

Our Ornamental Baboon a.k.a. Togo Starburst (Heteroscodra maculata) didn't seem itself, really. I mean, still a sling so not much personality anyway, but wasn't on the lid and wasn't acting crazy fast. I dropped in 1 meal worm and tried to entice, to no avail. The spider did move, though, and is not in a death curl. So I think we're still good here.

Feeding Day - Amounts

I fed all the big kids and the larger of the slings last night. I got 6 small crickets (got 5½, it seemed). They cost 10¢ each. I fed:

Lasiodora difficilis (Brazilian Fire Red) - both got 2 small crickets. 1 of the crickets was mostly dead

Poecilotheria regalis (Indian Ornamental) - 1 small cricket for the first time, this little T did just fine with it

I think we might get a full dozen small crickets next time. I have one or two more babies that are just big enough to handle small crickets.

I also bought 24 large crickets. They cost 11¢ each. What I actually brought home was 69 live and 1 dead large cricket! I fed:

Moving / Feeding Day - Curly Hair Tarantula

After that last molt, I noticed that Señor Fuzzy Britches really outgrew his cage. I mean he FIT of course, but he needed more "leg room" (hahaha, I crack myself up!). This weekend I finally picked up the next size cage. I specifically went for All Living Things® Critter Totes. The lids are much easier to remove and replace. The other brand we got are very stiff. The new one is a Medium.

I packed in plenty of dirt. Then I carefully spooned out some of his old dirt, moving the top layer off first. I topped the new habitat with it. All the while, I was keeping him from coming completely out of his cage. SFB is a very calm specimen. I was easily able to pick it up and move it to the new cage. I left him in it for about an hour before feeding him. He has much more room now! And he had no trouble with the crickets I gave him.

This photo doesn't show how much space he has, but at least it is a new photo, right?!

Señor Fuzzy Britches
in New Home
Brachypelma albopilosum
Curly Hair

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.

Dinner Bell

I love my babies so much! I was in the neighborhood today and have been wanting to pick up some crickets, so I stopped and got 3 for each of them. I gave their dirt a good soaking, too. Then I dropped 3 large crickets in with Anansi. She's looking a little thin. Within about 10 minutes, she had snagged all 3 and was kind of balling them all up into her chelicera all greedy-like. SOOO cute!

Next was Chaos's turn. She really likes her log (again), though this one also has some fuzzy looking spots on the end closest to the plastic. She has dug down in the corner of the log against the plastic. I saw her kind of go toward the exit once she noticed something was out there. She snagged the first cricket pretty quickly. She started up the hill that leads to the top of her log as a cricket seemed to be taunting her from there. She was so cute watching for it. Then she started laying down her webby table cloth. She isn't thin at all, but she hasn't molted since I got her, so she doesn't have any real reason to be thin. Still, she looks all pretty, pink, and large... made me wonder if she'd bury her exuvium if she did molt. hm

Finally it was time for my wild-caught spider I got at work. I have no idea what it is, I haven't really tried to ID it yet. This one has lined the entire bottom of it's cage with webbing. It's a circle, so it kind of pulls up into a bowl. Then the spider hides in the corner, just outside the bowl. I could tell this one noticed the movement in the habitat and was waiting for something to get close enough. I looked away for a minute and SNAG! First cricket bit the dust. I could have sat there for hours and watched them all process their dinner...

While I was at PetSmart, I was looking at habitats. I'm really wanting to get an arboreal species, but I'm concerned about habitat. So... I'm slowly researching my choices. I noticed a topic on one of my spider communities about pros/cons between arboreal and terrestrial. So I'll be reading those comments further and perhaps asking for suggestions on arboreal habitat that is available at the local pet stores. I really, really need to build (or buy) a shelf of some sort to go over my desk, but then it'll be too cold there this winter (it is an outside wall).

No appetite - Molting

I recently gave a few crickets to Anansi. They hid from her pretty well, but she also showed no interest in them. The next morning I took them out. I also held her recently. She was well-behaved, though the light was all wrong and I didn't get any good photos. I got some slightly reddish, blurry photos of her on my hand.

This morning, she's finally molting! I peeked in on her and she's hiding in her half-tube (as opposed to the whole tube). She's been hiding out in there a lot lately. Only now... she's on her back! I can't see her very well, but I did see her move a leg, so there's that confirmation that she's really alive (and she's not curled up like a dead spider anyway). I can hardly wait to see the new, brighter, bigger Anansi, but I wish I could see her better now. It is tempting to remove the tube from over her so I can watch, but I would feel awful for doing so. She chose to molt in there - probably because it IS inside, hidden... it's dark and confined, etc.

I've had her for almost a year now (as of the end of this month)! My best friend took me to OKC for birthday lunch and to get her last year. We've talked about maybe going back this year. That would be very cool.

I guess that's it for spider news right now. Babs is doing fine. I'll surely post again sometime after Anansi has completed her molt. I can't wait to see her!

And Anansi - my baby

Anansi is doing very well. She is SOOO fat right now! She also shows a black dot underneath on her rear end. So I'm hoping for another molt soon. I took several shots of her a couple of weeks ago, too. I had her posing with a quarter, too, but none of the shots with the quarter came out as well as this one.

See Anansi chowing in early December:

Brachypelma smithi ~ eating

She has continued to try to attack the water when I add water to her habitat. I also swapped her cages with Babs and gave her some bed-a-beast. I think she likes it. I gave her a full tube, too (short, but not cut down the center). She seems to like the tube a lot and has dug out some dirt on one end of it. She still has the half-tube, too and likes to stand on top of it.

Her belly is so fat that I'm afraid to feed her any more. Unfortunately, Special K has died and so there are fat juicy crickets in his cage with nowhere to go. Good thing they're cheap. I tell people they are the cheapest pets to keep (outside of Pet Rocks, perhaps).

Anyway, ain't she a beauty?! Thanks for lookin'.

Babs

I finally HAD to clean out her habitat. She had since made several new nests in which to hide. However, when I cleaned out her home, I did find an eggsac of some sort in the first one (as I had suspected). It was orange and very stiff. I don't really know what that means. I also moved her into Anansi's old cage. (I switched them.) She is as gorgeous as ever, but still a crummy model. She likes to hide all the time. In her new home, I gave her some bed-a-beast. I had SO much to spare and I figured it would also help with the whole cricket carcass thing.

Here is a photo I took of her a couple of weeks ago - right after changing out her home / dirt / and giving her crickets:

Phidippus audax
Bold Jumping Spider

She is fun to watch, but very difficult to catch for good photo ops.

Appetite & Killing Bugs

I was wondering if Anansi might be hungry at all due to the way she wanted to attack the water I gave her... or if she was just being defensive. I bought small crickets today (less chance of overpowering her) and dropped a couple of them into her cage. So far, she has just kind of avoided them. She gets defensive or walks away from them if they get near her. I'm going to give her maybe a few hours with them and then take them out if she doesn't eat. She always eats within a few hours (if not within a few minutes). I don't think I need to wait 24 hours.

Babs, on the other hand, was apparently famished. I was also concerned about feeding her. The more I see how tiny she has gotten (after being So huge), the more I think she has little babies waiting to hatch in her nest. It is quite an impressive web. It is very thick and has a very small tube at the bottom through which she can enter / exit. My dozen small crickets turned into about 20 I think (they never do really count them, do they?), so she has a feast in there!

Oh, and I bought these crickets somewhere new... but I don't think I like them as much. I'll stick with petSmart in the future.

I've also called Ortho about their Home Defense Max and how long I should keep pet spiders out of the house. Apparently so long as I wait for it to dry and keep the spiders off of those surfaces, I can bring them back in immediately. I don't think I want to go quite that fast. Better to err on the side of caution, yes? I've read that I should take the spiders away for a few weeks.

So... now to figure out when I can have all of the pets out of the house for a few hours. I'm kind of sad to think that Bunny is in my walls somewhere... and I'm gonna spray for bugs... :-(

My Anansi & Babs will stay at my friend's house while it is too dangerous here... with Anansi about to molt (I'm sure of it), I'm going to want to go visit every day! Argh!

Food & Water

I fed Anansi another large cricket today, while my best friend was here. Shortly after she snatched the cricket, I dropped some water (I often use a medicine dropper for this) onto her dirt, close to a corner. It puddled up a bit at first, as usual. After holding on to the cricket for a while, she usually lays a very thin web before eating. This time, she let go long enough to take a slow drink, I guess. She left the cricket under her abdomen. It was a little weird, but I guess she was thirsty.

Anyway, there you have it. Update posted.