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Big Spood's Mood Swings

As one of my largest spiders, Big Spood is often the subject of my photography attempts. I love the way she walks - lifting each leg with slow deliberate movements. I love the way she charges at her food - sometimes so fast that she tumbles over, taking her prey with her. I love her markings and the way her fur is so defined in her photographs - though I do regret not having named her some derivative of Beetlejuice, for the dark and white stripes. I also love the way she can be very expressive of her moods. I have previously posted photos of her sitting in her cage looking very concerned, as well as photos of her reared up on her back legs, baring her fangs. Today, I post images of her bipolar nature - or perhaps her "hanger".
These photos were taken when I opened her cage to perform the basic weekly maintenance and feed. She took particular offence to me attempting to remove her water bowl for cleaning - she is one of many of my spiders who likes to use their water bowls as their toilet area. I don't know whether this is normal behaviour for spiders, or just those in confined spaces in captivity, but it happens often. So I remove the water bowl regularly, rinse it in hot water (detergents can kill spiders, so I never use a cleanser), and then replace and refill. In this instance, Big Spood not only threatened me with her fangs, but she physically attacked both the tongs I used to remove the bowl, and the stream of fresh water I poured back into the bowl.
However, her demeanor changed very rapidly once she was fed. I was short on large prey this week, so I dropped a morio worm into her enclosure. She was on it in an instant - she is usually a voracious feeder so I wasn't surprised. Once she had food, she was much calmer and I was able to get this photo of her with morio worm stuck in her teeth...
My girl gets hangry, what can I say?
What I especially like about this photo is that you can see how velvety she is underneath the long hairs she has, but also that you can see the amazing mohawk she has between her eyes. I love it! My Little Punk-spood.
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