Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

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...

Unfortunately, my largest original spood appears to be sick. Since I moved Anansi to the larger braplast tub, I have been having problems with retained humidity in his enclosure. He is a desert species, and while he need a certain amount of humidity to successfully molt, he does need mostly dry conditions. In his previous enclosure, I filled his water bowl to the point of overflowing so that it dampened the substrate around it, and that was all he needed. Since I moved him and I had to rehydrate a new block of dried coco fibre, the substrate just hasn't dried. I tried everything that I could think of - from wiping condensation away twice daily to putting him on a heat mat, and even mixing dry substrate in with the damp to try and spread the moisture out. But unfortunately, it didn't work fast enough and two nights ago I discovered a fine fuzzy mould growing on the surface of his substrate: Checking on Anansi, I found him to be sluggish and unresponsive. He didn't rea...

While I was rehousing the spoods the other day, one of the ones I rehoused was Anansi. When I lifted the bark hide, I discovered that he had molted again, the third time since he came to me. I had expected this - he had seriously over eaten previously, and then taken to hiding in isolation. What I wasn't expecting was how big he had gotten. He is absolutely gorgeous, and after Incy, is my biggest spood. He has surpassed both Lolth and Shelob. Just compare these photos of now versus when he first came home.

Well, I did say that Anansi liked his food, so I shouldn't be too surprised. But here is Anansi having massively overeaten. His abdomen is quite distended. Hopefully he will either shrink down in time, or go into another molt cycle. I currently use a spreadsheet to help me keep track of each spoods last meal, what it was, whether they took it, and their last molts. This is supposed to help me monitor any issues as a lot of the spoods (e.g. Lucifer and Pratt) have disappeared into their substrate and not been seen since they arrived. It doesn't help me with Spoods who over eat, however. Anansi? You are on a diet!

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...

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...