Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

Unfortunately, due to the delayed nature of the posting on this blog, the things that I write about in the Summer don't get published until Winter, or vice versa. That's the limitation of a prolific poster writing up a buffer, to be released at regular intervals. It doesn't usually pose a problem, but as I write this post in the middle of Autumn - firstly, it is not going to hit the blog until next year. Secondly, due to the nature of the content here, it may interrupt continuity - I am writing to remember the charming little critters that I lost over this summer. Some of the deaths were expected, there had been plenty of warning. Other deaths were...surprising. But while I mention them here, due to the pre written nature of the content to come, there may be posts further down the line where these names and faces crop up again, almost as though I hadn't lost them. I've been umming and ahhing over the best time to place this post, and to be honest - there's...

I have been thinking for a while that I would like to rehouse my jumping spiders, and there are several reasons for this. Firstly - The tanks need cleaning, and badly. I have to remove the spiders from their enclosures, as the plastic sides are getting very difficult to see through. Firstly, they are covered with water marks from my spritzing the spiders regularly to hydrate them and keep the humidity up. I live in a very hard water area, and up until recently I have been using tap water in my spritzer. The end result is a collection of enclosures which have very misty, dusty walls due to limescale marks. I have recently made the switch from tap water to distilled water - which I buy online - so this should be less of a problem going forward. To further add to the grime on the sides - and this does seem to be specifically a jumping spider trait - they are also covered in poop. My jumping spiders seem to enjoy nothing more than turning around and sending a high velocity projecti...

This is the last of the feeding posts, as I have fed all of the critters who would take food. The jumpers are a little awkward to feed at the moment. They are a lot fussier with food than my others, who will eat anything so long as it's sized appropriately. The jumpers....well, they only really like green bottles. Unfortunately, I don't have any green bottles in stock at the moment. I have ordered some, but they take several days to arrive and then another week or so to emerge from their pupal stage. With me being about to head off for a few days, it's just not going to happen. But spiders still have to eat, and the regals are currently looking pretty hungry! With the flies I tend to just drop the pupae into the enclosure, then it hatches when it hatches and the spoods can hunt properly. As I don't have flies, I have to work with what I have, and what I have is meal worms. I can't release mealworms into the enclosures becuase the spiders like to be high up -...

Fred, the Spooder prince is doing very well. Once I worked out that he was a fussy eater and only ate green bottles, he started thriving. He still hasn't built himself a molting hammock yet, and I'm starting to wonder if he ever will - it may be that he is a mature male already (although he seems a little small for that). At the moment I've taken to putting a caster into his food bowl as soon as they arrive, so that as soon as it hatches he can be on the prowl. He seems to like that. But he is exploring well, eating well, and getting used to being handled - although that really depends on what mood you catch him in. Like Wilma, he likes to disappear up my sleeves. I have bought him some additional decorations for his little house - A coffin to serve as a hide, and some resin skulls which I scattered around his enclosure to match his castle. I guess he is now the Spooder Prince of Darkness? I was able to get these cute little skulls from Etsy shop The Spooder Corner . ...

The Spooder Prince has finally eaten something!! After everything I've tried, from moving him to smaller enclosures, to smushing mealworm guts near his fangs, and dangling flies in front of his face in tweezers.... in the end, I released a green bottle fly into his main enclosure, and when I came to bed I found him sitting in bed (his nest) eating the fly! It was so simple, and I'm so happy. I do feel a little bit like it was a pride thing - "I'll catch up own food, thankyou very much" - but I'm just happy that after a month, he finally has something . And a pretty decent sized something, too.

I got a surprise today. I have been home sick from work as I got Freshers flu (can you call it freshers flu in January?) Whilst I was in bed, I could hear a buzzing, as if a bee had gotten trapped in my room. I couldn't find the source for love nor money... until I looked to the Spood shelf. The green bottle casters that I had written off as dead had finally hatched. I'm not sure what had taken so long, but suddenly I find myself with a box full of hungry green bottles. Since hatching, the green bottles have been given a healthy meal of chicken, and some of them have been unfortunate enough to find their way into my enclosures. Catchy thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to properly hunt larger prey, Joy immediately leapt on the fly with all the ferocity of a starving Spood, and even Poe came out for a munch. I haven't seen him since he arrived, so that was a real treat. There was one Spood who wasn't interested in the flies though. The spood who I had initially bought ...

The Spooder Prince is giving me cause for concern. Much like Winnie when she first arrived, he is not eating. He hasn't eaten since he arrived about three weeks ago. He's definitely active enough, wandering around his enclosure, and being mostly happy to be handled, but no matter what I do he just won't eat. The first thing I tried was moving him into a smaller container so that he didn't lose his prey in the enclosure - after all, that worked for Winnie. But he just sits there looking at it. Then I tried changing up the types of prey I offered him. When he's not running away from fruit flies then he's letting them walk all over his abdomen, When confronted with a mealworm, he bats it on the head as if to get it away from him. I haven't had any success in getting him to eat green bottles either, though that may be more to do with the fact that I can't get them to pupate successfully. I really hope he eats soon, because I am very worried right now...

I hope everyone has had a great new years celebration? I am hoping that my 2024 continues in a better way to the way 2023 ended... And on that note - For the first post of the new year: Catchy the giant praying mantis, and Fred the regal jumping spider.

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...

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...