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Finally, a proper update on my tarantula colony. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen all five specimens at the same time, so although I assumed all were still alive (if one had died or been killed, the others would have pushed its body out of the burrows), I hadn’t been able to see more than two or three at a time.

The largest spider has begun roaming out of its burrow a lot, and it was clear that the colony had begun to outgrow its enclosure.

It’s important not to give them too much space, as they can become territorial. But from 1-inch diameter spiderlings in August 2019, the biggest one is now well over 3-inch leg span. So I bought them a new home – a 12 x 12-inch based, 15-inch high glass container with a mesh removable lid.

Spider No 1 was easy to catch as it was out of its burrow. Careful coaxing into a plastic box with a lid before transporting to the new container. These are a fast and aggressive species. If one escaped, I’d probably never catch it again.

The same procedure followed for the others, and I was delighted to find all five alive and well – one was considerably larger than the other four. The colouring is the same on all of them, so it’s impossible to tell by that method if I have a mixture of males and females. All I can do is check the moults as they grow larger.

I photographed each one as they were caught.

All five are now in the new container with the lid securely on! The substrate is slightly damp for this species as yet. Their natural habitat is desert-like, but this will soon dry out in the heated spider room.

I started off some shallow burrows for them, which they will quickly dig several inches deep.

Very pleased with how this turned out. Now I just have to keep a close eye on them and make sure the move didn’t upset them too much. Watch this space!

I haven’t updated my blog since October, so thought it was about time I scared you all with some more spider pictures.

Nothing very exciting has happened – Juanita, Orinoco, and Incy Wincey moulted successfully. The colony of five Socotra Island Blue Baboons is still doing well. They were all in their burrows today, but I’ve seen them out recently in twos and threes. There have been several moults and there are no corpses so that’s a good sign!

Here are a few pictures taken today, of all my furry friends with the exception of the Blue Baboons and Orinoco, the Venezuelan Suntiger, who was hiding in the webbing.

It’s a while since I updated my blog.

Sadly, there was a death in the family a few weeks ago. Charlotte, my Mexican Red Rump, moulted into a mature male! Once a male matures, its remaining life is limited, so HE didn’t last much longer.

There have been two other moults this week – Cadbury, my Honduran Curly Hair, currently my oldest spider, who is definitely female. I got her as a tiny spiderling in 2011 and she’s still going strong.

Incy Wincey also had a successful moult. The Brazilian Giant White Knee is one of the largest tarantula species in the world, and can grow to at least 10 inch leg span!

Finally, news on the colony of Socotra Island Blue Baboon tarantulas. The five spiders are all still thriving. I’ve found the remains of a few moults recently, and managed to snap one of the spiders out of the web. Usually they move too fast when you get close, so it’s not often I can get a decent shot like this.

It’s almost a year since I started the experiment with 5 x Monocentropus balfouri (Socotra Island Blue Baboon) tarantulas, one of the few species which can live together. They arrived in August and this picture was one of the first I took when I was releasing them into their new habitat. They were about one inch leg span then.

Almost a year on and all five spiders are doing well, having grown to almost three inch leg span now. They live in their burrows a lot of the time, but the warmer weather brings them out quite a bit, so I was able to get a few snaps of them all out at the same time. I haven’t seen any aggression between them at all, although they are a very defensive species. When putting food in for them, tongs are a must. Whereas many tarantulas will run away if bothered, these will turn around and threaten if they think their territory is being invaded.

Although the spiders obviously now have less space, having grown so much, moving them to a larger terrarium at this stage would be a bad idea. With too much space, they can become territorial, risking losing some of them. At the moment, they’re only about half grown, their full adult size being up to six inch leg span. I intend to keep reviewing the situation over the coming months and will probably rehouse them into a larger space early next year, depending how things go.

I’m hoping to achieve a full cycle experiment, seeing the spiders mature, breed, and raise spiderlings (assuming the five specimens aren’t all the same sex!)

The last update I wrote, not too long ago, didn’t have the best photos, but today, as some of my furry friends were out in all their glory, I managed to get some good pictures.

First, the Socotra Island Blue Baboon colony. All five were out together today. These are growing fast and in a few more months I’ll probably have to move them to a larger home to give them room to grow more. Their colours should be more prominent then too, so I should get better pictures of them from above.

A quick update for the New Year on the colony of Socotra Island Blue Baboons. As far as I know, they’re all alive and well and are certainly growing quickly. I don’t get to see much of them as they spend most of their time in their burrows, but occasionally I can catch them in the evening if I go into the dark room and quickly switch on the light.

However, this morning three of them were all out together, probably looking for breakfast! I managed to get a few snaps before I fed them and it’s great to see them living happily together – one of the very few tarantula species that can live in groups. These three have grown quite a bit in the last couple of months since I rearranged their home and handled a couple of them.

The colony of Socotra Island Blue Baboon tarantulas is still doing well. Since I checked on them four weeks ago, and dried out their substrate, they’ve heavily webbed around the tree branches and created entrance tunnels to their new burrows.

I was lucky enough to find two of the spiders out of their burrow in daylight, which was pretty unusual, but it’s good to see them getting along. I got a couple of snaps before they disappeared. The development of the colony is a slow process and they’re not the fastest growing tarantulas, so the updates won’t be all that frequent.

I haven’t written about this for a while, as there really wasn’t much to say. The spiders heavily webbed the entrance to their tunnels, crickets placed inside disappeared, and two spider moults appeared, but because they burrow deep, they’re not often visible – unless you creep into the room at night and quickly turn the light on, then I’ve been able to catch one out of its burrow a few times.

Anyway, their home began to develop some mould on top of the substrate and I realised it was a little bit too damp for them. These spiders are desert dwellers so I decided the best thing to do was remove most of the substrate, dry it out a bit, and at the same time, hopefully check on the spiders.

I started the colony with five baby spiders, hoping they would be able to live together and grow up, the way others’ experimentations have reported them doing so. The fact that I’d only seen two moults was a bit concerning, as I feared the other three spiders may have perished, although of course, they may just be moulting at intervals.

I carefully scooped out all the substrate away from the burrows, then began moving the rest away from the burrows, a spoonful at a time. I soon found another spider moult, and then, much to my delight, two spiders snuggled up together in a burrow. So they do live together happily.

Very gently, I caught the two spiders and put them in a plastic container with a lid on. Moments later, I came upon the third specimen, quite a bit larger than the first two, and put this in the same container. The remaining two spiders were also alive and well, and tucked in another little cave together. I caught these two and put them in another tub.

Somehow, while I was drying out the substrate, putting it back in the spiders’ container, and making some starter burrows for them to dig themselves back into, one of the three in the larger tub managed to escape. I was sure I’d put the lid on securely, but apparently not. I was undertaking this operation on the kitchen counter!

I put the four other spiders back in their main container, so I knew where they were, and then began carefully moving all the items off the counter, where I quickly found the escapee clinging to the side of my fruit basket, waiting to be found. Luckily, it was quite happy to be picked up. Good job it’s still only small, because these are a pretty aggressive species, and you wouldn’t want to be handling an adult.

Anyway, I managed to get a snap of the escapee, and one of the others, before I put them all back in the main container. I’m hoping that my disturbing them won’t have upset them and made them turn on each other, but they didn’t seem too perturbed when they all disappeared into the same cave under a log. It seems they’re getting along well, although they are very slow to grow. I’m looking forward to seeing more of them as they gradually get bigger, and hopefully the five will all survive into adulthood.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted since September, but to be honest, there hasn’t been anything exciting to report.

Today, I’ll start with Charlotte, my Mexican red rump. She moulted last week and is looking lovely with her red rear and velvety black legs. She’s one of my faster spiders and I can handle her, but she’s quick to get away if I’m not careful.

Orinoco, the Venezuelan suntiger, has webbed out several tunnels at the top of the branches in the enclosure. This is my only arboreal spider, all the others are ground dwellers.

Incy Wincy, the Brazilian giant white knee, is growing fast. This is one of the greediest tarantula species and Incy is looking particularly fat at the moment. I don’t handle this one very often, as it thinks everything that moves is edible – including your fingers! It’s usually okay if you feed him/her first.

The others are all doing well – Cadbury, my oldest spider, the Honduran curly hair, moulted not too long ago. Little Pumpkin, the tinest, is growing and developing colours, and my giant salmon pink, Magenta has started eating properly. After eighteen months trying crickets, locusts, cockroaches, and other insects, which she would eat occasionally, I discovered she has a liking for (frozen) baby rats and will take one about once a month. Juanita, the Mexican red knee, is looking as if she’s approaching a moult, and Blackberry, the little Brazilian black, is eating well so I’m hoping he/she will moult soon, then I might be able to tell if it is a he or a she!

I’m going to write a separate post about the colony, so watch out for that shortly.