Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Okay. I am still feeling the loss of Winnie very hard. So much so that I haven't been able to dispose of her as yet - I have put her little spooder self in the freezer, with the intention of getting her professionally preserved in resin. I don't have the know how to do this, and have been nosing around for this kind of service - Dead Set Co seem to offer professional services at a resonable price, and come highly recommended amongst the spider community, so I will probably ping them an email at the end of the month. However, the loss of Winnie shouldn't impact on my looking after the rest of the Spoods, and so I have spent the last couple of nights painting Fred's castle. Yes, it was already grey and probably could have been left as it was, but I wasn't entirely happy with it. So, after several layers of acrylic paint, several washes, some drybrushing, and a spider friendly varnish ( DecoArt DuraClear Gloss varnish ) I am very happy to present Fred's cast...

Apologies if this upsets anyone, but today was a bad day. Tonight I lost my beautiful Winnie. My first sppod, the cutest little spood that ever was. I am absolutely devastated, and yes - I am crying. I don't know how or why she has passed. It was unexpected and very sudden. After all the stress of her over eating after the waxworm, she went into an unexpected molt about 10 to 14 days later. I kept an eye on her, checking and misting every day. Today at lunchtime she seemed to come out of her molt just fine - all limbs intact, seemingly no issues. I was so happy and felt I could finally relax - I took a photo and left her in her molting hammock excited to see her new clothes and slimmer waistline... But just a couple of hours later she was gone. I found her on the floor of her enclosure in a death curl. It is unusual for a spider to leave their molting hide after such a small amount of time. I had expected her to be in her molt hammock for at least four days, in line with the ...

Well, the Twiglets were a hit. My daughter loves them very much. Only one of them has a name so far - One of the females is called Zucchini. We shall see what the others are called in time.

Spood. Big spood. Showing off his legs spood. Hi, I'm wearing socks spood. This is Poe. Poe is not his permanent name, I just can't decide what to call him yet. This is Poecilotheria metallica , another species from my dream wish list. I absolutely adore the colours on this spider, and affectionately call it "the Lidl spider". This poor spood spent longer in the mail system than I would have liked, as not only did Royal Mail fail on their promise of "next day by 1pm", but my postie didn't even ring my doorbell when delivering. He just put a note through the door and left. This was most frustrating, as with the weather cold and everything shutting down for Christmas, I was very stressed about the poor spood's welfare. After multiple visits to my local office, an hour on hold to customer services, and two posties and a manager frantically searching for the missing parcel, he was finally handed over to me. This is an old world spider with a medica...

Winnie has woven another molting hammock. She's only been out of her last one for about a month, so this was unexpected. That said, she is still rather large from eating the waxworm, so I can imagine that she's uncomfortable. I'm hoping that this will be the end of the waxworm saga, and that she will emerge nice and svelte!

Today the stick insects intended for my daughters Christmas present arrived. Fortunately, they were all intact and live, but it could have been a very different story. Last week I decided that since my six year old had been pestering me for a pet for what feels like forever, and since she has taken such an active interest in checking on the Spoods each night with me, that I would order her pets of her own. I was very aware that ultimately the responsibilty of the pet would most likely end up on my shoulders, and that she wasn't ready for something like a Guinea pig or a hamster. So I looked for an appropriate invertebrate pet. Stick insects were my favoured choice, as snails tend to smell really bad. Stick insects are also reasonably easy to keep for beginners, don't require any special food (many eat the plants native to the area around my house) and they are nice and slow for building confidence with handling. Obviously, The Spider Shop is my preferred distributor of in...

While the new Spoods are settling in, I thought it might be nice to see how the original three Spoods are doing. Each one of them has had one molt since they came to me, so they have slightly changed colour and have definitely gotten bigger! This is Lolth. He hasn't really changed much in colour, but he has definitely gotten larger. You can see the marking on his abdomen that I have previously mentioned. At certain angles, it looks like a human skull. Not from this angle, mind. Lolth has been pacing his enclosure, and recently made a dash for freedom when I was doing what I call "the Spood Check". He only climbed out and ran across the desk, but he scared my daughter so badly that she was sobbing. I didn't touch him, but I was able to guide him onto the lid to his enclosure and put him back in - so this is a win!! This is Shelob. She is still grey. She may not be the most flambouyant of Spoods, but she is very sweet. She mostly keeps herself to herself, hid...

So, now that my new spoods have had a little time to settle in, it is time to introduce them. Obviously, I have already mentioned Fred, the regal jumping spider, but this post is for the Spoods. As with the original three Spoods, I do not know the sexes of these animals, but the names are what they are. First up is Joy. Joy was named by my daughter. She is a Salmon pink birdeater from Brazil, or Lasiodora parahybana . She may be small now - approximately 2cm DLS (diagonal leg span) - but at her full size she could be up to 11 inches. My daughter named this spider, so I am hoping that Joy does in fact turn out to be a female - I don't want to be the one to explain to her that Joy is a boy spider with a girls name. At this stage she reminds me very much of how Lolth looked prior to her first molt. But this makes sense, as when they are both adults they will have very similar colours and markings, even if their sizes are different. Salmon Pink birdeater adult: Catchy Camouflag...

So.... I think Winnie is going to be okay. Its been about 5 days now and she seems to be getting less round. She's more active, and is definitely pooping which rules out impaction. So I'm hopeful. And a hard lesson has been learned.... In the mean time.... I had a delivery today. Meet Fred, Winnie's new neighbour. He is a male Phidippus regius approximately the same age as Winnie, and for some reason did not know how to jump at first. He tried, bless him, managing to get a little bit off the ground but ultimately failing to reach his targets. He ended up climbing the walls of his enclosure in order to reach the leaves at the top... hopefully he figures it out soon! While Winnie has a very natural looking enclosure, with whimsical decor, I have opted for a 3D printed castle piece for Fred. It needs painting at the moment, which I will do as soon as my spider-friendly sealant/varnish arrives. I can't wait to see how it looks once he has thoroughly webbed it. In addit...

So worried about my spood right now. I did a stupid and gave her a waxworm... she hadn't been fed in a while, her abdomen was small, and she looked hungry. In the past she's only eaten part of an insect if she's gotten near full so I didn't really think, I guess... but she was getting sooooo full on this waxworm. I tried gently blowing on her to get her to drop it, and she just kept turning her back to me. Then I tried to cut it in half so she only got part of it, but she kept putting her legs around it like "my worm!" and I was scared that I'd cut her legs by accident so I couldn't go through with it. This was 2 days ago. Now she's a super full, very engorged spood, who has taken to sitting in her substrate... and I'm very concerned about abdominal separation. If people aren't familiar with abdominal separation in spiders, it's where an over fed spider has such a heavy abdomen that the weight of it pulls down and physically breaks th...

Tonight, I held my Winnie for the first time! The first successful time, I mean. I've made several attempts in the past to hold her, but she always flopped around like a dead fish in an effort to escape. Tonight, she just sat on my hand. She looked around a bit before she started washing her face with her little pedipalps, and then sucking on her toes - presumably cleaning/grooming herself. SHe was incredibly cute, so here are some pictures: This is a big step forward for both of us - a sign from her that she's starting to trust me, and for me....I actually held a spider!