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Acanthoscurria:
   Para mongo zebra (A. fracta) x0
   Giant whiteknee (A. geniculata) x6
Avicularia:
   Pinktoe (A. avicularia) x2
   "Goliath pinktoe" (A. "braunshauseni")
   "Big purple pinktoe" (A. "Bolivia #2")
   Ecuadorian wooly (A. huriana)
   Yellow banded pinktoe (A. jurenesis)
   Whitetoe (A. metallica) x4
   Venezuelan redstripe (A. minatrix)
   Ecuadorian purple (A. purpurea) x2
   Peruvian pinktoe (A. urticans)
   Antilles pinktoe (A. versicolor)
Brachypelma:
   Curlyhair (B. albopilosum)x0
   Michoacan orange (B. baumgarteni)
   Mexican fireleg (B. boehmei) x2
   Mexican redknee (B. smithi)
   Mexican redrump (B. vagans)
Ceratogyrus:
   Straighthorned (C. cornuatus)
Chilobrachys:
   "Blue chevron" (C. fimbratus)
Chromatopelma:
   Greenbottle blue (C. cyaneopubescens) x5
Citharischius:
   King Baboon (C. crawshayi)
Cyclosternum:
   Costa Rican tigerrump (C. fasciatum)
Cyriopagopus:
   Malaysian earthtiger (C. thorelli)
Ephebopus:
   "Blue fang" (E. cyanognathus)
Grammostola:
   "Brazilian redrump" (G. actaeon)
   "Brazilian tawnyred" (G. mollicoma) x0
   Brazilian Black (G. pulchra)
   Chilean rose (G. rosea) x0
   "Chaco golden stripe" (Grammostola sp.)
Haplopelma:
   Cobalt blue (H. lividum) x2
Heteroscodra:
   Togo starburst (H. maculata)
Hysterocrates:
   Camaroon red (H. gigas) x2
Megaphobema:
   Columbian giant redleg (M. robustum)
Nhandu:
   Brazilian red (N. carapoensis)
   Brazilian black&white (N. coloratovillosus)
   "Hi-white" morph (N. coloratovillosus?)
Pamphobeteus:
   Brazilian pink (P. sp. "platyomma")
Poecilotheria:
   Sri Lankan ornamental (P. fasciata)
   Salem ornamental (P. formosa)
   Fringed ornamental (P. ornata)
   Indian ornamental (P. regalis)
   Redslate ornamental (P. rufilata) x2
Psalmopoeus:
   Trinidad chevron (P. cambridgei) x0
   Suntiger (P. irminia)
   Panama blond (P. pulcher)
Pterinochilus:
   "Usambara" orange (Pterinochilus sp.) x0
Stromatopelma:
   Featherleg (S. calceatum)
Tapinauchenius:
   "Orange treespider" (T. gigas) x0
Theraphosa:
   Goliath birdeater (T. blondi)

True spiders:
   Bold jumper (Phidippus audax)
   "Tan jumping spider" (Metacyrba undata)
   Wolf spiders (Lycosa sp.?)

Myriopods:
   Florida blue centipede
     (Hemiscolopendra marginata)
   Giant Peruvian centipede
     (Scolopendra sp. "gigantea robusta")
   Red head centipede
     (Scolopendra heros castaneiceps)

Insects:
   Camaroon mantis
     (Sphodromantis sp.)
   Madagascan hissing cockroaches
     (Gromphadorhina portentosa)
   Lobster roaches
     (Naphoeta cinerea)
   House crickets
     (Acheta domesticus)

E-mail me

April, 2000

April 3, 2000:
Well on Friday (the 31st) Boots's abdomen suddenly got a lot darker and shinier. She molted on Saturday. She seems to have lost her zig-zags.

Kuni's come out of her burrow a couple times, I'll see if she's hungry.

Raul, the Grinch, Speck and possibly Kuni could molt any time now.

Update: I came home to find Raul almost finished molting. I tried to get a couple pictures, but she was in a bad spot. I also was able to retrieve Boot's exuva.

April 4, 2000:
About 2am I noticed that the Grinch was molting. She didn't look all that much bigger in the morning, but Raul is A LOT bigger. She also has two orange dots on the top of her abdomen. They look like just markings but I'm not sure what they are for sure.

April 7, 2000:
I'd noticed over the past sevearl days that Kuni's abdomen was getting pretty dark, bald and shiny (not to mention, fat as a house). Today she finally molted. I could see some through a window into her burrow.

Tick's appetite has been less voracious this instar. She has her web closed off frequently, though I believe she's still eating.

I'm going to try Boots with a cricket today. Her web has mostly been closed (as far as I can tell), but she seems active, and it's been a week since her molt.

I got larger containers (and more bed-a-beast) for Raul and anybody else that needs a bigger cage. I got the biggest size plastic cages, which are about the size of 2.5 gallon aquariums. Once they outgrow those, they'll need 5 gallon tanks, which should last all except Kuni the rest of their lives. I don't know how big Sparky will get, but she seems to be pretty slow growing, and she's got a ways to go before needing something that big.

April 8, 2000:
Speck and Sparky have been refusing food, so they must not be far from a molt. The crick that Sparky refused went on to test Raul's appetite. It didn't last long in that cage!

Once I saw that Raul had fully recovered from her molt, I moved her into her new cage. She was very resistant and showered me with hairs as I tried to coax her into a cup to transfer her. She'll be bald again in no time! I thought I was far enough away to avoid a major dose, but I've been pretty itchy.

After a little bit of spring type weather, we've had a cold spell and even some snow. Some spiders have been chased indoors and I was able to catch a wolf spider at a friend's house. It's bigger than the other one I caught, and I actually have appropriately sized crickets now (it's about an inch in legspan). The markings are quite different too, so it may be a different species (or probably at least a different sex). It is quite a bit plumper too... The other one may have been really hungry and starved to death.

April 11, 2000:
I'd noticed that Speck's legs had been getting darker over the past couple days, and I noticed her molting shortly before I left for work. Sparky's abdomen is getting darker and balder, so she can't be far off. The Grinch, surprisingly, hasn't yet opened her burrow to come out to feed. Boots was totally out of her web today, so I think she's gonna start feeding more aggressively now. Tick seems to have started fasting, she didn't eat much this instar, and her abdomen isn't as disproportionally big as it usually is before a molt. I think she's getting pretty close to being full grown.

April 14, 2000:
Sparky should molt any day now. The Grinch and Kuni finally ate today. Boots started eating for sure a couple days ago. Tick has been fasting for a little while now, but is probably a ways from a molt.

I searched for some wild spiders today, didn't find much. I found some cob- webbers that might be cool, and a tiny little crab spider. I also found lots of baby wolf spiders, none are as big as Wolfie #2 (the one I currently have). I didn't end up catching any cause I didn't find any worth keeping.

April 17, 2000:
Speck started eating again quite quickly. Tick and Sparky haven't molted yet, but they could any time now.

Bob did the weirdest thing. She dug a vertical hole in the back right hand corner of her cage and has been sitting with her head in there and her butt sticking out. It's so weird. Her substrate is pretty loose and not very damp, so if she was trying to dig a traditional burrow it might have trouble standing up, but this was definately intentionally vertical. The only digging she'd done prior to this was a slight scrape beneath her cork bark shelter.

Wolfie #2 is still in his shelter sealed up.

April 19, 2000:
Well, I got curious about Wolfie #2, and lifted up her cork shelter. I found quite a bit of webbing, including a deep, vertical burrow about the diameter of a pen, lined with silk. Then, looking at the cork bark itself (with some webbing and substrate stuck to it), I saw my little spider carrying a little white egg-sac about the diameter of a small pea. I don't know when I should expect to see babies, but I'll probably let her and her babies go at that point.

After I got home from work, I noticed that Boots decided to come out of her web. She had been acting kinda sluggish and not very happy lately, but I boosted the humidity in her cage and misted her web more, and she seems really happy now. She's pretty much all jet black, with pink toes, but if you shine a light on her, you can see the underside of her legs has green iridesence as does her carapce to a lesser extent. Her abdomen chevrons are still faintly visible under bright light as well.

Kuni, the Grinch and Raul are all being cooperative and quite visible. That will probably change when I get some more crickets to fatten them up. They're all very lovely. Bob has abandoned her hole. Speck may be big enough now for a bigger container.

Sparky finally got around to molting today. She'll definately need a bigger container when she recovers. I got the shed pretty fresh and was able to spread it out well, but I don't know if I can determine the sex or not.

April 22, 2000:
Tick molted this evening. She got a lot bigger. I didn't expect quite so much because she hadn't eaten much.

I had moved Kuni and Speck to new containers (Kuni into one of the new big ones like Raul, and Speck into one of the small round ones).

Kuni and Raul haven't started digging at all in their new containers. I didn't sink in the shelters this time, so that might have something to do with it. Kuni didn't take so well to the move and has been pouting a bit. Most of the hungry spiders had to go with small meals today because my cricket shipment didn't come in and all I have are small crix. I'll probably get some bigger ones at the pet store Monday. For Kuni and Bob though, a special treat was in store. They got some MHC's. I tried to select my smallest ones because even those are pretty big. They seem to have a very high resistance to tarantula venom (compared to crickets.) Bob snatched hers up right away and after a pretty major struggle, in which her nice web matting got totally mangled, she got it into a position where she could maintain a grip without much moving. As I write this, it's been nearly half an hour and it's still moving. She actually had to take multiple bites just to puncture the thing (she eventually bit it on the underside).

Kuni at first was just startled by the big meal, and after she eventually did get a hold of it, I realized that it might be too big to finish. Fortunately, the only defense the things have is a big hiss and the ability to run and hide. Kuni latched on with the first bite, near the rear end, but the roach kept running, gripping the cork shelter, lifting it up while running underneath the spider. This torqued the spider around in an odd position. Quite a struggle! It looks like she got it in a sleeper hold, but the antennas are still flicking and it's still moving the cork shelter around. I can see she's got a big smile on her face for the new tasty treat. She should be full for a LONG time!

April 24, 2000:
Wow, Kuni and Bob were still digesting the roaches this morning. They're both looking a lot fatter. Tick is looking really huge! I'll have to prepare her new container. I'm gonna order some more roaches so I can get them breeding. I might give one to Raul if there are any as small as the ones Kuni and Bob got, but I don't think there are. Tick might be able to take one of the bigger ones, she's huge now.

Boots has been in a good mood lately. She's been runing all over her cage outside of her web, and building on new additions.

Update: I came home to find that my order from New York Worms arrived today. I managed to unpack the one thousand crickets without any (apparent) escapes. I gave them a tub of damp vermiculite, and I've already noticed females laying eggs. I covered it with a screen so that other crickets can't dig them up and eat them. I'll probably rotate the egg tub weekly to get a constant stream of new crickets. They've already started to produce a distinct smell, fortunately, they're stowed away in the spider closet. Based on the number of them though, I'll be cleaing the cricket tub more frequently.

Raul, the Grinch, Speck and Boots all got big tasty cricket meals today. I retrieved the leftovers of the MHC from Bob's cage. It was pretty substantial, but seems to be just part of a well cleaned out exoskeleton (almost like a crumpled up roach molt). I failed to find the leftovers in Kuni's cage.

I also got some wax worms and fruit flies to try out along with my cricket order. I've found directions on how to breed the wax worms, so I hope to be able to provide a renewable supply of moths for the arboreals. I know that the nutritive value of the waxworms is low, though the moths should be fine. Wolfie #2 and other wild spiders I catch (as well as any very small spiderlings I get) will get the fruit flies, though I don't expect to really use that many of them.

April 25, 2000:
I did a water check on the spiders this morning and Kuni pounced around like crazy and wouldn't let me fill the dish. I dumped in a few crickets and she chased them all around the cage and grabbed up all three of them. She then let me finish filling the water dish. I got similar responses from Raul and the Grinch, though not to the same degree. I guess I've been neglecting them.

April 30, 2000:
Tick and Sparky are eating again. Sparky is about as big as the Grinch now. She got moved into one of the new large pet pals (like the new ones for Raul and Kuni). The Grinch is as big, but she doesn't seem as cramped as the other two did (she takes more advantage of burrowing space), so she can wait until I get more cages. I got a 2½ gallon aquarium for Tick. I'll get some plexiglass or something for the front, and move her in as soon as I get it ready. That will also give me the opportunity to take some good pictures. She's pretty close to adult colors now.

The fruit flies are starting to pupate into adults. I got another P. audax from my friend (this one is quite a bit smaller), so I gave it a few. I didn't see it catch any, but it seemed to be sleeping at the time. I've rotated the cricket egg-laying tub, and I think I'll have pinheads soon. I also cleaned their container while I was at it. They were really stinking up the place. I think it was mostly the dead crickets, old skins and droppings that accumulated during transit. Fortunately, I have so many now, that if I accidentally throw out a few, it's not a problem. I can hear them at night even though they're in another room. They go through about a third of an orange in a day. If I have good luck at breeding them, I'll probably put together a care/breeding sheet for them. I've combined different ideas from a number of care sheets. The wax worms don't seem to be doing that hot. A couple have died and turned brown, none have started to spin cocoons yet.