March, 2000

March 1, 2000:
Tick molted today, or perhaps yesterday. Her colors really changed dramatically this time. Her legs are now sorta purpleish, her abdomen is mostly bright red and her carapce is a weird metallic minty green color.

I picked up some more crickets yesterday, and all the spiders got fed except Tick (post molt), Sparky (pre- molt) and Speck, who has refused crickets for a little while now and is probably pre-molt.

I don't know how far off from a molt speck is, but Sparky could go any day now.

I picked up a couple pet rats (no, not spider food), and they'll probably get their pictures on this page eventually.

March 3, 2000:
Sparky's still waiting to molt, I expect her to do so shortly. I don't know when to expect Speck to molt, last time she gave me no clues (other than her not eating), and at her tiny size, I'd imagine that she'd molt very freqently.

March 4, 2000:
Sparky molted sometime very early this morning. I was able to retrieve the molt very shortly after, but I think the combination of its small size and my inexperience make it hard for me to sex.

Update: Speck molted this evening (I didn't even get a chance to watch). She isn't very obvious; I just have to go by her fast I guess. There was no noticable color change. All the spiders are hanging out of their burrows more, so I might get a chance to take some pictures if I get time.

March 6, 2000:
The spiders are mostly all hungry (except Tick, Speck and Sparky who are all still post-molt), so I've been feeding them (but not tons). They've been spending more time outside of their burrows because I haven't been stuffing them like I usually do. Even Kuni has been out and about. She seems especially hungry. I noticed that she was sitting over the water dish, so I wanted to give her cage a good misting, but she kept attacking the water spray thinking it was food. I gave her a couple crickets which she snapped up, then she went into her burrow to digest. That gave me a chance to give her cage a good mist.

Lots of pages are getting outdated, so I'm trying to make some updates today.

March 8, 2000:
Sparky looked hungry so I tried her with a cricket, and she snatched it up ferociously. I also fed Raul, Kuni, Boots and the Grinch. They've been nice enough to spend time outside of their hideouts so I've gotten a few pictures.

The grinch has been doing more digging and has moved out so much substrate that it's nearly piled to the ceiling of the container! I have to unbury the water dish every day. I think I'll have to just take out some of the extra dirt.

Raul has closed the front of the burrow, but the back is wide open and she seems to prefer that side anyhow.

Tick should open her web and go into feedback mode any day now.

The Rats were pretty shy when I first got them, but they're starting to come around. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

March 13, 2000:
All the spiders are eating. I'm running out of crickets, so they'll have to wait a day or two for their next meal. Raul spends most of her time outside of her burrow now, and Kuni is visible quite often. A couple times I've seen her over the water dish, so I've been misting her cage more. She's done a lot more digging and has opened up windows at the bottom of the container. The Grinch has slowed down her digging a bit, but her burrow is already huge. She frequently comes out though. Tick hasn't modified her web to accommodate her larger size yet. I may take her out for some pictures and clean her container. Boots has started to get pretty fat, so I expect her to slow her eating soon. Bob is being Bob as usual. Sparky didn't grow as much as I expected in the previous molt. I may move her to a larger container soon though. Speck got quite a bit bigger, but she'll have to wait another molt to move up to a bigger container. I'm still afraid she'd be able to escape through the ventilation holes in the larger containers.

March 16, 2000:
They're all still eating. I got more crickets Tuesday and they're all eating. Sparky didn't seem to grow much after her molt, but she runs around a bit more now. I may move her to a larger cage. Tick seems hungry but her web configuration makes it hard for the crickets to get to her. If she gets really hungry she'll venture out further to get them; she has before. Boots will probably stop eating soon; she's super fat.

March 25, 2000:
Nothing much new to report. On Tuesday, The Grinch sealed off her burrow somewhat unexpectedly. Kuni has dug all the way to the bottom of the cage and spends much of her time there. Tick has modified her web a great deal, so I may be able to get some pictures of her new colors without taking her out. I think Boots is fasting.

Also on Tuesday, I picked up another rat. He (along with a number of other hand bred and raised, well socialized pet rats) were taken in by the pet store when the owner could no longer care for them. Since they don't do a big business in pet rats, they got stuck in the big smelly tank of feeders. I went back to look at them and the little guy jumped in my hand and ran up my coat sleve and onto my shoulder. I took him out to inspect him, but it was already a foregone conclusion. Fortunately, he seems to be a very happy, healthy little baby rat, not more than 6 or 7 weeks old.

Last night I caught a little wolf spider running around my apartment. I prepared a cage for it this morning. It doesn't seem very capable of climbing the walls, so I think one of the small round plastic cages (like the old one for the Grinch) will work fine. He's pretty small though, so I might have to order some fruit flies or pinhead crickets for him. I plan to catch some more wild spiders this summer (I would love to get another P. audax), so I might be able to use them all.

March 26, 2000:
I've taken lots of pictures over the past several weeks, and today I finally got around to making a big update to the page. I uploaded a ton of pictures, made updates to most of the spider pages and created pages for Bob and my friend's P. audax jumping spider.

March 30, 2000:
Well, for some reason, the wolf spider kicked it. Either he didn't take to captivity well, or I didn't get appropriate sized food quite fast enough. He was OK on tuesday when I checked on him, but by the time I got some small crix on Wednesday he was shrivled up and gone.

I think boots will molt soon, based on the fact that she hasn't eaten in a while. Tick and Bob are definately still eating. Raul's abdomen is turning very black, though she just ate a cricket the other day. I'll withhold food now though. The grinch has been sealed in her burrow for a while, and her abdomen is almost as black as Raul's. I'd also assume that Kuni is in a similar state, though her burrow is open. I can see that she's at the bottom, but I can't see her very well. She would probably still eat if offered food (and had on Monday). Sparky's looking pretty fat, but may take a cricket. Speck might as well, but she's probably near another molt. I'll probably have to move a lot of spiders after the next molt, definately Raul, Sparky, Speck, probably the Grinch and Kuni as well. The Tick might as well.

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