Ally's Eight-Legged Journey

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...

It's moving day! The spoods are finally making the big trek downstairs! There is still a lot to do - I am currently using desk lamps to light the critters from above - eventually I want to make the switch to LED light strips, which I would fix along the underneath of the shelves to light them from above in all directions. Additionally, I had considered getting larger heat mats which I would have fixed to the back walls to radiate heat outwwards. Now I'm contemplating getting a space heater, just to heat that little corner. It's not an issue at this time of year as this room is warm enough for them, but in the Winter they will definitely need some additional heating to keep them comfortable. What I do have so far are some little decorations. Such as this sign, which I found for about £3 on Temu: Over time, I am sure that the spiders will start to migrate, filling up the rest of the shelves as they get larger enclosures, or as I add to my collection. I wouldn't mind...

As discussed in a recent previous post, due to the overcrowded nature of Spood-tropolis, sometimes accidents happen. Today, I accidentally knocked over Asmodeus' Arboreal keeper. I was reaching over to grab a different enclosure for a misting, and my sleeve just caught the top of his tub, and over he went. He is OK. Despite one of the following photos looking like he has a missing limb, I can assure you that it is only the angle that he's sitting at - he does in fact have all limbs intact. But now I have a new problem. I now can't set the enclosure upright again without piling all of that substrate on the top of his head, potentially squishing him. And obviously, that's not an option. So from now on, Asmodeus's enclosure will be lying on its side, until such a time as his replacement arrives and I rehouse him. What I have been able to determine from this accident is that yes, Asmodeus is still alive, but he doesn't appear to be growing very fast. His abd...

Following Evander's untimely passing, I found myself with a spare arboreal enclosure. Rather than buy a new critter to fill it, I decided to move Lucifer the Evil - Satan's Featherleg - into it to give him a little bit more space. Previously, he was in a small "arboreal keeper" from The Spider Shop. While these are perfectly adequate enclosures, they are not my favourite as I don't like having to spritz the enclosure from the tiny hole in the top. I don't usually see Lucifer much. He buried himself in his substrate pretty much as soon as I put him into the Arboreal keeper, and I think I've only seen him twice since then, maybe only once. So imagine how happy I was when the day after I had moved him into the new enclosure, I found him out and about, stretching his legs. As you can see, while he is looking quite well fed (this can be seen by the size of his abdomen - small and shrivelled mean he is hungry, round and plump means well fed) he hasn't g...

A quick look at how I keep my enclosures. Currently, the enclosures are in my guest bedroom, stacked on a shelf against the wall. They used to be nicely spaced, with plenty of room around each enclosure for ventilation. As the critters have grown, they've been upgraded to larger enclosures taking up all of that spare space, so now I have next to no space to upgrade them should they grow any more. The plan for the future is to move all of the enclosures down into the living room, where I've been clearing a set of shelves for them. Long term, the plan is to have LED lighting for each shelf, and to run a heat mat along the back wall so that on cooler days, there is heat radiating from behind the enclosures. I want to make the Spoods a display/centrepiece for when people visit, (should they dar as most of my friends are arachnophobic themselves!) Here is the current set-up. My partner once commented that they look like spider skyscrapers with the way I have them stacked, so ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

Big Spood finally has a new house! The posts on this blog are buffered, meaning that - in order to maintain a regular posting schedule, I write my posts in advance and schedule them to drop at a later date. This means that while it appears that a lot of time has passed since getting him, I actually ordered his new house the day after he arrived, and then rehoused him the day after that. He was in the Braplast tub for three days, in total. That was three days too long really, as he really didn't have a lot of space in there, but I promise he wasn't in there for the weeks since my last mention of him. In looking around for a reasonably priced enclosure, I happened upon this acrylic terrestrial enclosure on Amazon . It was reasonably priced, and came with an inbuilt hygrometer and thermometer. It was just the right size for Big Spood, and ought to last him a little while. (I don't know why it shows a beardy on the image - it is definitely not large enough to keep a bear...

Big Spood seems to be settling in nicely. He has eaten a cricket, started laying web mats down, and is moving around his enclosure. As such, it's been easy to tell that his legs have successfully detangled themselves, and are nicely straightened out. He just needed a little bit of space. Unfortunately, it is also clear to see that he does not have enough space in the braplast tub that he is in. When he stands to eat, he almost touches the lid, and it only takes him a few steps to walk from the front of his house to the back. Getting Big Spood a new house is now a priority, so watch this space for updates.

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 . ...

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...

Diablo's new tank arrived on Friday. It is the Exo Terra large faunarium. I don't actually feel that it is big enough, but it is the largest that I can fit into my room, currently, so it will have to do. I have read online that most people keep their forest scorpions in 10 gallon aquariums, so I have been window shopping and have earmarked a very nice glass tank, with cross ventilation, front opening, and a padlock, here . When I move, he will be rehoused again into that. For now though, Mister Grumpy will have to make do with what I have. I was very anxious about the idea of removing him from his tank for this - while I know that his sting is likened to a bee or a wasp sting, I don't actively expose myself to bees or wasps. I don't want to be stung, at all. Nor do I want my daughter to be stung, so she was removed from the room while I was doing this. I needn't have worried, however. While he was a little wary of me, and clearly did not want to be handled,...

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...

My Etsy delivery has finally arrived! I ordered two items to decorate Winnies enclosure with. Firstly, I got this incredibly cute littke walnut spider bed for Winnie to build her nest in. She already has a coccoon that she doesn't use, I have to admit, but this was too cute for me to pass up. Adorned with ladybirds, I got it from Ali's Spooder Decor , and I have already seen Winnie go inside it, which is a great start. It attaches to the side of the box with magnets, so it can be repositioned if needed. The second item I ordered was a cute little sign post to go in her house. It says "Winifred lives here" and is in the colours green and gold, to link her to the character she was named after - Winnie Sanderson from Hocus Pocus. This piece was custom 3D printed from Etsy store The Bearded Shrimp . I absolutely love how these items tie her enclosure together, and I am hoping Winnie likes them too! Just because she's a spider doesn't been she has to live in...

She is finally here!! She arrived at lunchtime today. I knew I was going to be at work, so I asked for her to be shipped to the university to avoid her potentially sitting in a cold porchway for hours until I got home. I was so anxious about her arriving okay that I was checking my emails every 15 minutes in case there was an email to tell me I had a package at reception. Just before 1pm, it finally came. I immediately went to collect the box. I had opted for stealth shipping - there would be no branding or labels on the box informing handlers of its contents, because I didn't want to scare people who might not like to be handling a box with a live spider in it. The first thing I wanted to do once I got her into the warmth of my office was to check she had arrived unharmed. Unfortunately, when I opened the box to check, I found that she was so securely acked that I wouldn't be able to get her out safely until I was ready to put her into her new home, as I couldn't ...