Smithy Is Going to Molt!

Well her nasty bad patch has turned black and she's been denying food for over a week. Yay, molt time!

Mustapha is still eating well and oh so big. He's taken to webbing like, everything in the terrarium. He just wants to make himself an even scarier and creepier spider.

Not sure if I mentioned but I picked up some fake plants for their terrariums. I know that quite frankly, tarantulas don't give a rat's ass about decoration but I think it looks nice. Hey, I have two big tanks in my living room. They're gonna look nice!

I think I need to buy new crickets tomorrow. The chirping has stopped.

That's it for now.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I haven't had time to update but I had a case of the, "be careful what you wish for's." RIGHT after my last post about tarantulas being boring I thought that Smithy had escaped! Ack!

I fed her the butter worm, and went to check in on her later that evening, only to realize she was nowhere to be found!

The way her terrarium is set up, I can see into her hide, the substrate is pretty shallow at the moment, and she has a half coconut that used to be her hide. This coconut shell has the *tiniest* hole, and it faces the glass.

Sure enough, I discovered her in there the next afternoon. This was after going to bed thinking she had escaped and having to work the next day from 6am-12pm. ALL of that time, I figured I'd have to pull apart the bookshelf she lives on, and looks for a runaway.

*phew*

Tarantula keepers will swear that T's are Houdini's who can escape through the tiniest crack, and her screen covering is not that secure! She has now proven that she can manage getting through small spaces with the coconut shell. Time to re-think that screen cover, me thinks!

In other news, Mustapha has been out and about a lot lately. S/he's HUGE, and still really shy.

I need to get a picture of this beast but s/he runs away whenever I come close, and when I do get a shot, it never turns out well. Dang unphotogenic giant spider!