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!

Rose Hair Laid Eggs! What to do??

My husband and I now have 8 arachnids between us. We considered breeding and discussed it at length before deciding against it. We each have a Rose Hair that we purchased from a pet store. He has had his a couple of months. Then last month we got small clay pots for hides and renovated her habitat. Last week she webbed herself completely into the pot. She hid in there for a couple of days, then the web was GONE and she was hovering over a ball of web.

Grammostola rosea with web ball

We figured she had molted and rolled up the old skin in a ball like such garbage to be discarded. But she kept hovering over it! Today my husband spent 20 minutes trying to get the "garbage" out because she finally stepped away from it. She kept coming back when he reached into her cage. He put it in a little jar for me to check out when I got home, because I love to see the old skin!

I poked at the sac. Soft... soft... crunchy. Crazy! It felt kind of creepy. I didn't have an exact-o blade, so I just gripped the sac gently and pulled apart. I got a LOT of web, but it split in two. There was more web under that. I gripped deeper and pulled apart again. Imagine my surprise when I found EGGS!

Grammostola rosea egg sac

My husband feels HORRIBLE about fighting her to take her babies away! We've put the damaged sac back and some eggs fell out. I wonder if she'll put it all back together. I have found 1 page that says gestation is 6 weeks. We are totally unprepared for slings! I know there could be 80-1000, but we think it is on the low end.

We have her in a Kritter Keeper and are worried the slings will just get right out through the lid. Can we use cheese cloth between the cage and lid? Anyone have any experience here? Can we send the sac to a breeder? Suggestions, PLEASE??

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.