Sad news….

This morning, I was doing a quick feeding and tank check when I noticed that my little Aphonopelma sp. Davis Mountain Rusty was in the death curl.  He had not eaten in quite some time, and had molted recently, although I have yet to see the actual molt.  I believe it is underground in the soil.  I am wondering if I didn’t keep it humid enough, or if he had a bad molt that led to complications that I was unable to see due to the small size…

Either way I am sad.

RIP Tank.  The Desktop will miss you. 😦

Update and 16 Legs, perhaps……

Well folks, I have been a very bad blogger.  So far, no pictures, and no LS report for the newly molted.  Things have been pretty crazy around the desktop, but rest assured, the goodies are coming.

MOLT UPDATE:

Annabel Lee Molted last Sunday, and is getting bigger by the minute!  According to my note card records, she was a stunning 1/2″ after her last molt, which leads me to believe that she is around 3/4″ now!

Raven, Alee’s litter mate, should also be molting soon.  According to the same records, she molted 6 days after Alee last time.  I am curious to see if they will remain on schedule.

Additions Update:

Through the magick of Facebook, I have had the opportunity to meet and greet some of you, and many other enthusiasts from around the globe.  One of whom has just successfully bred a Poecilotheria Subfuscia!!  (Well…more like bred, egg sat, hatched, egged with legged, and over-saw molts into 2nd instar…) He has offered to send me one of these adorable little critters, and even managed to wrangle me an Ephebopus cyanathogos! (Blue Fang!!!!!!!) I am flattered by the gesture, and thank *you* for the idea!!

I hope to one day be in a position that allows me to also send out 8-legged packages to random people across the US.

Speaking of positions, an opportunity to move locations has come our way, and I must say that I am excited to jump on it!  Currently, the desktop and I reside (with my husband) in a small apartment in Grants Pass, Oregon that is no longer meeting our needs.

Within the next month or 2 I expect us all to be starting fresh with a new apartment, and new jobs in our closest big city.  This will not only grant me the opportunity to possibly meet other hobbyists, but it will also allow me more freedom to begin breeding projects as room and time expand!

One of the many perks of moving will also place me by SOU, where I hope to study biology, and pass (knowledge) along to 5th and 6th graders as a teacher.  It took a high school teacher to inspire my love of reptiles and crawley things, and I want to bring the same joys to a kid like me…

(Thank you Ms. Bodily, you are one of my select heros.)

In addition to this, I am getting out of the retail game while I prepare to go back to school, so hours will once again change, but opportunities will grow for all of us on and around the desktop of Sid and Nata.

Let’s all not forget the upcoming NaNoWriMo event that starts in exactly 32 days!  I will be taking on the task of 50,000 words by the end of November that may actually look loosely like a story that some may call a novel…..  I am in research mode for this, and have a few ideas that may prove fruitful with a bit of TLC and lots of coffee!  If you are in the mood to race with thousands of people from around the world,come join in at NaNoWriMo.org!!  Look for me under the user name “Sidnata” and we can be writing buddies 🙂

Keep baring with me, and as soon as I get it together, the website and FB pages will be published for the world to see!  Wish us luck!!

Food/Molt Update

Today, once again I write to you as a lazy blogger.  While feeding the zoo, I noticed that Aphrodite (B. boehmei) finally molted!  Took her long enough…

My N. Chromatus (Athene) took on 2 crickets, and is walking around with both of them in her pedipalps (and fangs…)

Zero is being a booger and is still guarding the molt, AND has yet to completely push it out, or emerge from the hide himself.  Perhaps the crickets I dropped in today will entice him to emerge.

Other than that, I am still adjusting to the longer shifts at work (yesterday was 10 1/2 hours of customer service goodness and freight processing…yay 😐 )

Someday I will be able to do more than type….

Blah,

Tia Marie

So many Molts!

EEEEK!  Every time I peek into a jar or keeper, it appears that someone is molting.  I thought that molting had to do with species….unless they were all hatched around the same time, and I just happened to get the bunch that happen to be on the same schedule….hmmmm…..  is it possible?

Anyway, this morning, Zero (C. fasciatum) is flipped over. Yesterday it was Athene (N. Chromatus) the day before that it was Raven (L. parahybana) then the day before that it was Serj (A. chalcodes.)

Last week it was Flora (N. coloratvillosus) and the week before that it was Isis (B. Smithi.)

That equals half my collection.

Tarantulas are funny, yet seemingly scheduled creatures. I will post an updated Molt Date/New Leg Span/Picture blog on Sunday if I can.  Might as well do them all at once.

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Another Day, another 1/4″.

Today is Wednesday, which in my world is feeding day (As is Saturday and sometimes Sunday.) All the little spiderlings are brought down to the floor in their jars, deli cups, and now a kritter keeper.  I stack my 2 small roach keepers, and place an empty potato salad cup on top.  I bring down all my tools: Metal and plastic tweezers, empty film container, paint brush, flash light etc.

One by one, each tiny deli cup (2 L. parahybana slings and 1 B. boehmei sling) is placed in the larger potato salad cup so that when I open the lid for feeding, the spiderlings can’t escape far if they get out. I then retrieve a small cricket from the small cricket tank, and put it in the film container.   I gently crack open each lid (one at a time) and lay it on top of its container.  I then grab the isolated cricket with the tweezers, and plop it into the opened spiderling deli cup.

Tonight I found that one of my L. parahybana had molted.  It was Raven, and I have been expecting this for about 2 weeks now.  FINALLY!!

She has also grown from a tiny 1/8″ to a monstrous 1/4″!!  WHOOOO!!

As for the rest of the feeding process, the other spiderlings are in jars so I am able to keep their lids off during feeding.  Serj (A. chalcodes) looks a lot like my Nhandu sp. since yesterdays molt, but I am fairly certain that she will get her Arizona blond markings soon enough.

Tank (Aphonopelma sp.) has not been eating, so I expect his gummy physique to molt out as well in the next week or 2.

So, tonight marked the 3rd molt of September, and everyone was fed pretty well.  Sid (my A. avicularia) tried to climb out of his tank while I grabbed a cricket!  It was pretty cool watching those little pink toes come up over the edge!  I managed to toss him a cricket, which appeared to land right in his fangs. Way to fetch Sid!!  He’s a good boy 🙂

I even updated everyone’s note cards with acquisition dates, molt dates and LS”.  All 12 have cards now, and I am exhausted.  Luckily for me though, not everyone needed to be fed.  Besides the newly molted, I busted Isis with a giant B. dubia roach in her mouth last night.  It was one of the left overs that lives in her soil from my deceased colony. I have a few left in some of the jars, and even catch them from time to time eating the remains of crickets not consumed by the spiderlings.  They must be eating well because this sucker was bigger than the snacker herself!!  (Her abdomen at least) and I know it wasn’t that big when I put it in there several months ago!

Feeding day was a success, and even though I am tired from a long day at work, and then an hour of feeding/record keeping/blogging, I am happy to finally be getting the rhythm of this invertebrate keeping down.  Spider checks in the morning, and in the evening, with Giant Cockroach checks at some point after work.

I am now ready for bed.

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• My Tarantula is Molting! (therealowner.com)

Serj Molted!

Last night, while doing tank checks, I found my Aphonopelma chalcodes standing over a molt.  She still looked almost clear (as the little ones do when freshly molted) so I just left her alone and left the molt as well.  I will post new LS and pics some time this week.

Isis Molt Pics

Here are a couple of Isis, my Brachypelma smithi, after her molt.  I couldn’t get the molt itself because she appears to be standing on top of it, and the light for the photos was irritating enough without me grabbing things from her film container hide…..I will post new measurements of Isis and Annabel Lee (L. parahybana sling) in a few days.

Isis Molt 8.22.10

(Isis) Brachypelma smithi after Molt 8.22.

Isis is Molting!!

I just peeked in Isis’s jar, and she is molting!  It looks like she is right side up, but she appears to be okay.  It could just be my imagination….

I will post pics when she is all done, as I do not want to disturb her with the camera and bright light now.

Isis is my Brachypelma smithi, and this is her first molt under my care.

Alee Molt Pics!

As stated earlier, Annabel Lee molted this morning!  She looks to be about 1/4″, but I can’t quite measure her yet. In the first photo, her molt is sitting on top of the dime.

Annabel Lee's 8.20.10 Molt

Alee Molt 8.20.10

Molting!

Annabel Lee is Molting!  She is one of my tiny L. parahybanas, and it looks like she is just about done with the process.  I recorded her and her sister at about 1/8″, but Alee was just a bit tinier than that!

When I get home from work, I will do my best to post pics!

I love days like this 🙂