Predictably, I'm a bit late with this diary - it's all been going on around me, and more specifically, it's all been moving out ! Here's the latest headlines...

 

This month's Top Stories... 

Moving 9 Tarantulas is more of a mission than you'd first think, even if you're only moving down the road... throughout this exercise, my main focus was on creating the minimum of stress for all the spiders, and even more so on making sure they could come to no harm during the transfer. In the new place, they are not lucky enough to get their own room, so I have placed them at the back of the lounge (not somewhere anyone here spends much time) arranged in a sort of 'spider corner'... no doubt I'll do a video tour round it at some point later when I've finished jigging it all around for optimum spider comfort !

 

For keepers who are moving house soon, please feel free to read the Spider Diaries 'guide to moving house with spiders', which details the various stages I went through to ensure all went smoothly... you can read this here  

 

But moving on, for now, let's see some photos and videos of various little animals before they moved...

 

Here's the latest batch of photos, in no particular order...

 

 

So we start with little 'Blue', who isn't yet. This little sling is worrying me at the moment - she STILL won't kill even the smallest of pinhead crickets, and doesn't seem massively keen to eat the pre-killed ones either, although she does eventually. She did manage a moult recently, so I would expect some non-eating either side of that event, but usually, slings that size start eating again as little as 2 days afterwards. I am monitoring her progress closely...

 

Meanwhile, over in Boot's tank, everything is going very well - certainly no shortage of eating and webbing here. Here she is, in her new tank, in her new location, basking by the heat...

 

 and again, but this time possibly awaiting some lunch action...

Next up is our growing A.versicolor, Flash, seen here out of her primary burrow, and basking in 'temporary burrow 2', again, by the heat pad. 

 

 

 

 

 

One very hairy spider...beautiful but subtle colours, I think you'll agree... here's another one, up a bit closer- well worth clicking for a full view.

 

 

For anyone that hasn't seen it yet, there's also a new video of Binkster using his / her clever sense of touch to locate a motionless roach...

 

 

Clever spider !!

Let's go and see Fluffy and Boots eating something now...combined for the first time in one video, it's multi-spider action ! Watch out for a particularly impressive dive from above from Fluffy, who has obviously been watching 'Legz' last month and has been taking notes !

 

 

 Right - more photos, I think... let's go and see how Legz is doing...

 

 

Here she is, little knowing she was about to face the biggest battle for lunch of her life so far ! More about that next month, when I have had time to edit the 3 hours of video footage I have ! For now, we can just admire her beautiful patterns and colours... 

 

Here's ZBD, crunching her way through a maybug...

 

 

In fact, we can see the whole adventure by clicking the video below, and watch Zebs teaching us how it's done in the feeding mat department... go Zebs ! Poor Darren - he learned the hard way that my bedroom was the wrong one to fly into...

 

 

 Amazing animals, hey ? How she knows what to put where is a mystery to me...

 

Following the success of Ginny's in-tank substrate change last month, I did the same for Zebs this week - waited til she was in her burrow, and then started adding fresh peat moss at the other end of the tank. It has to be said, she put up with this far less than Ginny did, and as soon as I touched her webbing launched into a half-threat posture that remained until I went away again ! Fortunately, leaving it half an hour proved to be a good idea, and she was calmer when I went in later, and smoothed it all down. She then promptly explored what I had done, and chose to sit in what I would describe as 'perfectly happy tarantula pose' most of that week on the new area, so I can safely assume she appreciated it in the end...

 

No photos of Ginny, our favourite Zebra T, this month, because she had such a good go last time round. However, the reason that we haven't got any of Tenebrus, our small P. irminia, is the same as always - she won't come out to let me take any ! I have not seen that spider at all since 2 weeks before we moved, not during the move, or after it. I do hope she's OK. Experience tells me to leave her to it - she will emerge when ready, but worry and general concern (especially about how she's doing after the move) want me to go in, disturb her and check she's alright. We'll see which instinct wins next month, no doubt...

 

Let's finish off this month's diary with yet another photo of little Boots, viewed here, top down,with her adult leg colours coming through nicely - what a beautiful spider she's going to grow to be...

 

 

See you next month, spider fans, and I promise you in advance, the video will be AWESOME !!!! 

 

 

oh, and me :)