Smithy's New Suit + Mustapha Scares Us!

Smithy's molt went very well...Apparently. That's after I thought her molt was her corpse..lol. She's bigger and her colours look incredible. I can't wait until her first feed in a couple of days!

Mustapha =OMFG. I went in to get his water dish yesterday and he lunged at me. That's nothing new, I'm used to it. I have a pair of chopsticks handy. I tried to grab the dish with them but he stood over the dish. I tried to nudge him off by lightly brushing his back leg with the stick.

Do you know what he did? He not only attacked the stick but he held on to it TIGHT, like he was swinging off a freakin' vine. Holy crapola! I can't put the dish full of water in with the sticks so I had to go in by hand. Fortunately he didn't get me! I gave him a bug for bothering him, a day after eating a huge one. He doesn't waste any time. I don't think he's ever turned down food. Even a day before a molt. Is that normal??

Chris found a terrarium at Value Village for $10 with a screen and everything! The screen itself would cost 30 new. We already have 2 tanks but this one is better suited for a tarantula. It's a little wider and shorter. I'm going to give it a good scrubbing and re-home Mustapha next week! We may even make a video because we're still receiving amused comments from viewers of our original You Tube video when we "opened" our new T's over a year ago.

I'm excited about the new set-up! I can't wait to take pics too.

I'm an Idiot! Smithy Molted!

Yesterday afternoon I checked in on the Tarantulas after getting in. I panicked at first (I'm always worried) when first noticing a crumpled spider. I know, I know, a year later and you WOULD THINK I'd know what a molting tarantula looks like! Well I noticed the double leg look (at one point in a molt, it can look like a tarantula has 16 legs!) before having an emotional breakdown, and then I was happy. Yay, Smithy is molting.

Cue hours later...

OH.MY.GOD. She's still in the same position, I think she's stuck in her molt....*goes online to research* If she's like that in the morning, I'm going to cut in and help her out of the old skin.

*goes to bed, wakes up, and runs down to the terrariums*

OHFUCKOHFUCK. *Grabs tank off bookshelf, tears off lid, and is ready to play Dr. Tarantula*

....Then I realized I had been looking at a molt folded IN HALF the whole time. She was probably already out even before the very first time I noticed her "molting." The skin, being in the back end of the tank and folded slightly over gave the appearance of a molt in progress, but she was already safe and drying in her hide! D'oh. I'm so relieved though! I can't wait to see the new suit!

At least I would have went in to help her out with tweezers and all that jazz. :P

So while I was in there, I cleaned up her tank a bit. It's starting to smell funky:/ I gave her and Mustapha water, fished a cricket out of her tank (she won't be needing it after a molt!) and fed it to Mustapha.

Oh and the whole time I was checking in on Smithy yesterday, Mustapha was half on his glass looking quite spectacular. What a show! I love that guy!

I'm going to pics of them both soon!

My, What a BIG Mouth you have!

I fed Mustapha a cricket the other day and Chris pointed out that he did not spin it. No, he just stuffed it in his mouth and ate it whole. All that could be seen was a head sticking out. Damn, what a scary spider.

I went on my bi-monthly bike ride trip to the pet store and picked up more crickets (a little bigger this time) and 2 butterworms as a nommy treat. Mustapha was on his right away but Smithy wouldn't touch hers. For over 24 hours it was crawling around and under her. Hey Smithy, that's an expensive bug you're not eating! (American Psycho reference, just fyi:P) so I picked it out of her terrarium and gave it to Mustapha, who has now eaten 3 times in 24 hours. That should hold him...Who am I kidding? He's probably hungry again already. Poor Smithy though. You snooze, you lose. I don't know why she wouldn't want to eat. I'll try a cricket again in a couple of days.

I just have to mention for the billionth time that I really love my spiders! It's been over a year and I still watch them everyday and am still awestruck over their developing growth and colouration.

I love Smithy because she's pretty, lazy, and just chill. She lets us play with her and that's exactly what I wanted in a tarantula. I love Mustapha because he's huge, also pretty and really active. He's so interesting to watch. He's not one to allow a handling but that's fine by me. Having one playing spider, and one to watch is not bad...Not bad at all!

I have to water them today but other than that I think that's all for now!