my tarantula sling eats? (i think)
Sep. 21st, 2022 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
uri9158 So yesterday, after about a week of waiting for the store to ship him to me, I got my t. albopilosus sling in the mail. I knew I was getting a 3/8" to 1/2" sling but, he is just so frickin' tiny its unbelievable. I guess since this is my first tarantula I can't really visualize DLS (diagonal leg span) yet.
When I got the box I thought they forgot to put the tarantula in it. The little deli cup was just wrapped in so much paper (a good thing! the box was also a nice temp). I was so ready to be super careful and take him out very sloooowly with tongs and everything, but what ended up happening was that I opened the deli cup thinking he was in the paper towel and he fell out because he was in clinging to the lid and I didn't see him. Luckily, he fell in the plastic shoebox I had out. Un-luckily now I had to nudge a scared baby spider into a cup. He kept covering his eyes with his legs as stress response which was very cute. I got him in his gelato cup after a few minutes and he promptly ran into the hole I made. He spent all of yesterday in his hole, pulling his legs over his face whenever I picked up his container. I crushed the crap out of a little dubia roach's head, which didn't kill it all the way for some reason and dropped it in last night.
He spent most of the day in his hole again, like yesterday, but today I realized he was slowly inching up his burrow. I left him completely alone, no picking up his container or shining a flashlight at him (which now that I think about it was probably stressing the crap out of him). I checked on his progress every few hours or so. He moved up a millimeter at a time. I left the dubia roach in there all day since I didn't want to stress him out and there was no way its mouth worked anymore. The last time I checked on him, he had dragged the roach into his burrow! I wasn't sure if he was actually eating it though? Like, the roach's legs were moving so SOMETHING was happening, but he was in this really strange vertical position. I'm gonna check back in actually after I finish this and see if anything else happened.
Update: lmao hes definitely eating it but the roach is still moving a bit. I guess I just assumed the tarantula's venom would kill it by now?
When I got the box I thought they forgot to put the tarantula in it. The little deli cup was just wrapped in so much paper (a good thing! the box was also a nice temp). I was so ready to be super careful and take him out very sloooowly with tongs and everything, but what ended up happening was that I opened the deli cup thinking he was in the paper towel and he fell out because he was in clinging to the lid and I didn't see him. Luckily, he fell in the plastic shoebox I had out. Un-luckily now I had to nudge a scared baby spider into a cup. He kept covering his eyes with his legs as stress response which was very cute. I got him in his gelato cup after a few minutes and he promptly ran into the hole I made. He spent all of yesterday in his hole, pulling his legs over his face whenever I picked up his container. I crushed the crap out of a little dubia roach's head, which didn't kill it all the way for some reason and dropped it in last night.
He spent most of the day in his hole again, like yesterday, but today I realized he was slowly inching up his burrow. I left him completely alone, no picking up his container or shining a flashlight at him (which now that I think about it was probably stressing the crap out of him). I checked on his progress every few hours or so. He moved up a millimeter at a time. I left the dubia roach in there all day since I didn't want to stress him out and there was no way its mouth worked anymore. The last time I checked on him, he had dragged the roach into his burrow! I wasn't sure if he was actually eating it though? Like, the roach's legs were moving so SOMETHING was happening, but he was in this really strange vertical position. I'm gonna check back in actually after I finish this and see if anything else happened.
Update: lmao hes definitely eating it but the roach is still moving a bit. I guess I just assumed the tarantula's venom would kill it by now?