Today I visited an exotic pet store about an hour from where I live – one of the few that aren’t too far away. I was looking for spider housing, substrate, fake plants and the like, and wanted to look at the tarantulas they had in stock. I bought Charlotte and Incy Wincy from this store a couple of years ago and they always have plenty of interesting things to look at, including other pets such as snakes, turtles, frogs, and various types of lizards.
On looking at the spiders available, I spotted a small Grammostola pulchra (Brazilian Black), one of which I had some years ago. The adults are a shiny, velvety black like the one in the picture below.
Anyway, I couldn’t resist this little one and came home with the newly named Blackberry, which at present measures about an inch and a half leg span. They’re very slow growers so it’ll be a few years before I can expect this one to mature, but it’ll be fun raising it.
Given its size and my lack of suitably sized spider housing, I quickly made an enclosure from an old sandwich box with some holes punched in for ventilation, substrate for it to burrow in, and a milk bottle top for a water dish. It can move into one of my slightly larger spider houses in a few months’ time.
Sarah's Spider Friends 