Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Webster wasn't really due for a housing upgrade, if I'm entirely honest, but somebody bought me this amazing enclosure from Tarantula Cribs and I had to decide who to put in it. As it is an arboreal enclosure, that meant that the slings in arboreal pots were the only ones it was really suitable for - Lucifer, Asmodeus, or Webster. I am not putting my fingers into the enclosures of Asmodeus or Lucifer for all the Cribs in the world. As such, that left Webster. The benefits of putting Webster into this enclosure were mainly aesthetic. Firstly, Webster likes to web, so seeing it all webbed up will look awesome. Secondly, as Webster grows he will change colour, going from blue to purple, red and green. These colours would look amazing when backlit against the purple acrylic. And to be fair, his arboreal keeper was pretty boring, although he had made a rather impressive tunnel web in it. As with most of my recent rehousings, I opted for the natural look again. However, I did ...

Okay, now this is a little embarrassing. I mean, I thought nits would be bad, but locusts? While I was lying in bed last night I felt a little tickle on my head. I didn't really think anything of it, had a scritch, and pulled out.....this: What happened was that my daughter was carrying the invertarium which contains my live food by the handle on the lid. But it is a very old invertarium with a very loose lid. I told her to put it down and carry it round the bottom before the top popped off, but what I didn't realise was that it was already open... She put it on the side and left it there, so when I came back several hours later I found a swarm of locusts taking over my bedroom! I scooped them all up and put them back in the container, but clearly....I missed one.

I have moved the spood cam! Since Winnie's death, it has alternated between my jumping spider Fred and Catchy, in an attempt to catch something vaguely interesting to watch. However, both Fred and Catchy have proven to be rather dull participants, preferring to sit still in their respective corners. Big Spood, on the other hand, has been an incredibly active Spood since she got moved into the larger enclosure. As such, I have moved the camera to focus on her. So far, I have not been disappointed.

Another rehousing! This time it is Ziggy (previously Poe). Ziggy was getting to the point where he could almost span the entire floor of his enclosure with his legs, and to be honest, his enclosure was pretty boring for an arboreal species. He was housed in the small Arboreal Keeper from the Spider Shop, but it really wasn't appropriate for him at this point. As he is an arboreal species, I wanted to get him something similar to what my mantises and jumping spiders are in, so again I turned to Amazon to get him this : Like my other enclosures, it was a flatpacked acrylic box that I needed to assemble myself, but it's top opening and has a nice strong magnetised lid so that he is unlikely to get out. Cork bark, spider plants, and moss for humidity are fast becoming my favourite decor items, as they offer a more naturalistic environment for the spiders. Yes, Fred has a castle, skulls and a coffin, but to be honest it is wasted on him as he tends to sit up in the corners far ...

Sorry, but this was too cute not to post - but spiders have paws!! Little spider pads with little spider claws. I'm sorry, but if you didn't know these were spider feet, you'd think they were cute and fuzzy. I know I do. My spiders are mostly too small to see their paws in anything near to this level of detail, but they are starting to shape as they grow. I know that Ziggy and Webster are both developing distinct toes, while Wilma has teeny tiny, itty bitty claws. I can't wait to see them properly.

Another rehousing! This time it was Anansi, who was desperate for a new house. Not because of his size - he is still a large spiderling rather than a juvenile. However, following his admittance to the "Spider ICU", he had several more instances of mold in his enclosure. I came to the conclusion that coco fibre just wasn't for him. He's a more arid species, who likes it a bit drier, and so I set out looking for a sand based substrate for him. I didn't want to get just any old sand, in case he decided to burrow and it collapsed in on him. Instead, I opted for an arid tarantula substrate, which was sand based but clumped, allowing him to dig, mould, and shape to his hearts content. I added a small skull shaped hide for him, which he does use, and some moss which I allowed to dry out. He does get water, but I only put it in his water bowl, which I allow to overflow so that he has more of a humidity gradient. He can choose where to be in his enclosure accordin...

Time for a non-spood related post. Catchy. Catchy is definitely my favourite mantis. I'm not sure whether it's because she was my first or is my biggest, but I love her. She's a lot of fun to get out and handle, and feeding times are always entertaining. Well, usually anyway. At her last feeding, she again batted the prey away. She really didn't want to take the food she had been offered, despite me offering it several times. By now, I know that this means a molt is imminent, so when my daughter came to me and told me "Mummy, Catchy's bum is grey!" I knew that she was preparing a shed. Lo and behold, I woke up the next morning to this: I can't get her out as yet to show off her new size as she needs to harden up - I would be scared of injuring her. But she is just getting bigger and bigger, at an amazing rate. It is fascinating to watch. My other mantids have each had one molt since arriving, and they're a fraction of her size. She reall...

There are going to be a few of these posts going forward - many of my spoods are either beginning to outgrow their initial containers, or I've decided that they deserve nicer, fancier ones. Incy Wincy finally molted, and just look how fluffy he is!! It's a far cry from his scraggly naked butt. I love it! But now that he has molted, it's time to transfer him to a larger enclosure. As he is similar in size to Big Spood (albeit skinnier!) I decided to get him the same enclosure from Amazon . It was a very basic rehouse - I have started buying substrate and hides in preparation for the number of rehousings that I have coming up, so I was able to give Incy Wincy a lovely piece of cork bark to hide under. It's more important for him to have a hide than Big Spood, as he is a spood that likes to hide rather than be on display. The spider plants are baby plants that have been growing off of the mother plant in my bedroom - I included them and some moss to try and maintai...

With all this space to wander around in, Big Spood has started to walk on the sides of his enclosure, inadvertantly flashing his underparts at me. As he is the biggest of my spoods, and only him and Incy Wincy are really large enough to sex, I have been wondering about Big Spoods gender. Sexing a mature tarantula is much easier, as the two sexes are visually different as adults. But as a growing juvenile, it is harder. Now, I have already posted these images to two different online resources, and both of them came back to me and told me that Big Spood is most likely a FEMALE , though it's easier to tell once she has molted. Now, if she is a female, then I'm happy, because females can live in the region of twenty years, compared to the paltry four of the male. But how can we tell that Big Spood is a female? To be perfectly honest, I can't tell one from the other, although I have been reading around the subject. *Side note: Check out those awesome fangs!* Apparently, th...