Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Look who is fresh out of her moult, with the appropriate number of limbs to boot. And doing her best elephant impression in the first picture as she tucks into her first meal in over a week. 😅 As per my previous post, she molted several days ago, but has been hiding out in her nest until she felt ready to face the world... she may be my spirit spider, because I get those feels too Little Spood....

Success! Winnie appears to have finally molted. Not that it's easy to see in the photograph, but there is both a Winnie, and a Winnie-skin sitting separately in her nest. She hasn't come out yet, and from what I've read, she probably won't come out for several days while her new exoskeleton hardens up. But seeing two shadows inside the molting hammock is a big step forward - I have been spritzing her enclosure daily with water to ensure that there is enough moisture in the air to facilitate her molting. Spiders which don't have enough moisture often have difficulties getting out of their old skin before the new one has hardened, and they get trapped. This can be lethal for the spider, so even though I don't know whether or not Winnie has had a completely successful molt (i.e. has come out of it with the requisite number of limbs) I can at least relax on the "oh no, she might get trapped in the skin" front. She is also reacting to light, so I kno...

Recently she has taken to hiding in what I'm assuming is her moulting hammock. I've not seen her in about a week. I'm not going to wonder if this is normal or not, as I've read enough social media posts in my groups to know that it is. This will be her first moult with me, and while I'm always going to be anxious until she comes out the other side, I have to accept that I might not see her for a while. And that's fine. But that doesn't stop the anxiety. I mean, if at any point it were to start going wrong, how would I know? What would be the warning signs? Her web is getting thicker and thicker - I can barely see her at this point - and while I know she's still moving as I can see her shadow, I just can't help wondering... if it did go wrong, would I even know? Note that the molting web is on top of the nice new nest I bought for her, rather than inside of it... This spider may well be part cat.

This is Lolth, my Grammostola pulchripes (Chaco golden knee). Gender is currently unknown, but for naming purposes I am assuming it is female, as she is named after the Dungeons and Dragons spider goddess of the Drow, Queen of the Demonweb pits. If she turns out to be male I have no plans to change her name. She is about 1cm across, diagonally, so quite small. You can't see it in this picture, but at the moment she has a marking that looks almost like a skull on her abdomen. She was the last spider to be removed from her sling tube, but the first one to demonstrate a threat pose. So she is definitely feisty! Meet Shelob, named after the Middle Earth great spider, Spawn of Ungoliant, part spider, part demon. She is a Brachypelma verdezi (synonymous with Tlitocatl verdezi ), or Mexican rose grey. She will grow up to be grey, with pinkish orange hairs. Not an especially distinctive looking spider, but I am excited to see her grow. She was the most restrained of the three w...

Winnie has been spending a lot of time in her nest lately, I've not seen a lot of her. So I thought it was time to talk about something else: the Spoods. As well as Winnie, I now have three tarantula spiderlings. I ordered these thinking that I was further along in my arachnophobia journey than I really am. I've actually been able to put my hand in Winnie's enclosure and attempt to handle her - she hates it. She must think I'm icky because whenever she's on my hand she jumps and flops about like a fish out of water. Maybe I'm too warm, or maybe I smell funny? Maybe I just don't have enough eyes, I don't know. But the point is, I have been trying, and I take this as a very good step forward. In fact, I thought this was such a great step forward that I thought I wanted and could handle more. So on that note, meet the Spoods: The Spoods is my collective name for what is essentially Winnie's extended family. I have mentioned this before, but T...

Just because she's cute, and I can!

My Etsy delivery has finally arrived! I ordered two items to decorate Winnies enclosure with. Firstly, I got this incredibly cute littke walnut spider bed for Winnie to build her nest in. She already has a coccoon that she doesn't use, I have to admit, but this was too cute for me to pass up. Adorned with ladybirds, I got it from Ali's Spooder Decor , and I have already seen Winnie go inside it, which is a great start. It attaches to the side of the box with magnets, so it can be repositioned if needed. The second item I ordered was a cute little sign post to go in her house. It says "Winifred lives here" and is in the colours green and gold, to link her to the character she was named after - Winnie Sanderson from Hocus Pocus. This piece was custom 3D printed from Etsy store The Bearded Shrimp . I absolutely love how these items tie her enclosure together, and I am hoping Winnie likes them too! Just because she's a spider doesn't been she has to live in...

Winnie has eaten!! I am very proud of this and see it as a great step forward. Following the advice I got from the Friendly Jumping Spider group on Facebook, I used a paintbrush to gently herd Winnie into a 300ml plastic container that I usually use to ferry yoghurt around in. It does not have any airholes in it, so I was quite anxious about leaving her in it for too long. Jumping spiders not only need ventilation, but they need cross ventilation, meaning airholes at the sides of the container, rather than in the top. But once I had ushered her into the container, I dropped 5 fruitflies in with her. I didn't dare to leave her alone in case I got distracted and forgot about her (one of the many symptoms of being a mother of a small child!) so I sat with her and watched. She was definitely interested in the fruitflies - following their movements with a keen eye. - but I think I put too many flies in with her, as she kept switching her focus from one to the next to the next, ...

I've had Winnie about 10 days now. She has started coming out of her house to watch me as I go about my business in the bedroom, but neither of us quite trust the other yet. We're quite happy to just watch rather to engage. That being said, I have run into an issue that will require me to face a pretty big barrier - Winnie is not eating. It doesn't matter how many fruitflies I let loose in her enclosure, or how many mealworms I dangle infront of her using my tweezers, she just isn't eating. Having turned to my trusty social media groups, I have been informed that the most likely issue is that her enclosure is just too big - she isn't encountering the prey often enough to be able to effectively hunt. They have advised that I move her into a smaller enclosure or feeding tub to allow her to hunt properly. This means that I will have to take her out of her enclosure. I am not sure I'm ready for this - what if she escapes? Will I have to touch her? I don...

Winnie has been home with me for about 24 hours now. So far I have not seen much of her. She has completely ignored the silk coccoon that was put in there for her to build her nest in, and has instead built a little web inside the yellow cone that is in her enclosure. She has not really ventured out as yet, though sometimes she does poke her head out to have a look around. She is a mocha coffee colour, with a little orange heart on her abdomen, and oh my gosh, she has the sweetest little eyes. I don't really want to put my hand in the enclosure yet, but even I can't deny how cute she is. It's a strange feeling being alone in the bedroom, but then realising that when you get the feeling that you're being watched? You are. And the creature watching you has far too many eyes for comfort!

She is finally here!! She arrived at lunchtime today. I knew I was going to be at work, so I asked for her to be shipped to the university to avoid her potentially sitting in a cold porchway for hours until I got home. I was so anxious about her arriving okay that I was checking my emails every 15 minutes in case there was an email to tell me I had a package at reception. Just before 1pm, it finally came. I immediately went to collect the box. I had opted for stealth shipping - there would be no branding or labels on the box informing handlers of its contents, because I didn't want to scare people who might not like to be handling a box with a live spider in it. The first thing I wanted to do once I got her into the warmth of my office was to check she had arrived unharmed. Unfortunately, when I opened the box to check, I found that she was so securely acked that I wouldn't be able to get her out safely until I was ready to put her into her new home, as I couldn't ...