King made it, with some help

One suggestion said to use forceps to grasp the old skin. It wasn't working. Someone else replied to my plea for help suggesting I use a q-tip and water along the edges of the stuck skin.

1 swipe with a q-tip

Dabbing water at the edges wasn't working. This photo was taken after the first swipe down the backside. The old skin peeled away like wet paper! King didn't much like me messing with him so he kept dragging the skin along.

King, fresh out of his molt

Now someone on the forums suggested King isn't a Theraphosa blondi after all, but rather a Theraphosa stirmi (a Burgandy Birdeater which is a new and popular Theraphosa species on the market). So we'll be researching that. He was sold to us as a T. blondi.

King is Having Trouble

King started his molt about 8 hours ago. He was doing well, taking his time.

Goliath Birdeater,
King - mid-molt

However, he seemed to get stuck with his abdomen. He flipped back over and even came back out of his hide, but he is dragging his exuvium behind him.

Goliath Birdeater,
King
stuck in his molt

I'm quite concerned that we might have to do surgery to get him separated from it. Though that wouldn't be as bad as losing him in the molt.

King & Other Updates

Well, it seems King was headed into his hide to molt! Elmo looked over to find this:

Theraphosa blondi
(Goliath Birdeater)
Settling in to Molt

You may recall, King had broken his leg. We're hoping his leg will come out anew which usually happens when injured spiders molt.

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In other news today, Fuzzy Britches (Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula) has been pushing dirt up very high in the corners of her habitat. I very much want to give him more dirt, but we do not have any more on hand after giving all of it to King and we're snowed in right now.

Most of the larger spiders have been active today.

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The next local Reptile Expo is coming up on the weekend of February 19th. Now we have to decide whether we're going to do a fancy meal or just do the Expo for Valentine's Day this year. Tarantulas are wonderful gifts, right?

King

We added almost an entire brick of substrate to King's aquarium, working around him. We built up the height on the corners and took out the fake skull for now. He hasn't been in his hide since he broke his leg, but over the past several days he has been slowly working his way toward it. He is finally (mostly) inside it and we're both pleased. It is somehow reassuring to see him back in his "home."

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.