Pictures - and the First Feed!

Here are some of the pictures I meant to upload in yesterdays post of the arrival.

This is the spiderling in her travelling pot, sitting waiting to see what was going on:

This is her after being transferred into her new spiderling pot, she's sitting on the far wall:

Micro Crickets, as the name suggests - they be tiny!

So that's the pics form yesterdays post. Last night I was excited again to get in from work and check on the sling. As I peered through the terrarium enclosure into the spiderling pot I was instantly worried that I couldn't see her, then I hoped that meant she was in her starter burrow. I carefully lifted the sling pot out of the enclosure and removed the lid. Sure enough my heart leaped as I saw three sets of her legs poking out of the hole! I was so happy that this little spider, although captive bred still an animal with wild instincts, had accepted the temporary home I had designed to meet her needs.

I replaced the lid and prepared to give her a feed. I placed the tub of micro crickets in the fridge for 2 minutes just to slow their metabolism down a bit and make one of the tiny insects easier to catch. This worked, as with a minimum of fuss I persuaded one in to a feeding vial and snapped the lid shut. I then tipped it in to the vial in the sling pot lid and into the spiders lair!

These crickets really are tiny, about 2mm across. I'm pretty sure the baby tarantula will soon move on to bigger prey, which is just as well as they are hard to see once they are on the substrate and its important to be able to monitor if the spiderling has eaten or not.

The sling did not immediately go for the cricket, so I left them be for a couple of hours. On my return the spider was out of her burrow but I was able to see the micro cricket in the pot. I decided to see what would happen over night, after all tarantulas are nocturnal feeders.

Sure enough, in the morning I was not able to identify the cricket in the sling pot so I have to assume that my little charge had fed! I really would have liked to have seen the act of feeding, but maybe next time.

It's important to make sure that live food isn't left in the pot too long as crickets can nibble at a spider and damage them, particularly during and after a moult.

Next post will be on Monday, hopefully I'll have lots to report then - 3 days is a long time in the life of a tiny tarantula. :)

Have a good weekend.