Firstly, apologies for the lack of new posts in the recent past, I have been a little busy back in London.
I am very pleased to announce the safe arrival of my second baby Josephine.
Being a Goliath
Bird eater (T.
Blondi) she is one of the largest breed of tarantula. Having been purchased in Cork, smuggled to Britain in a horn case and having a little time to settle down, I have appropriated a suitable habitat for her to grow into. Her new tank is approx. 2 feet * 1 ft * 1 ft. I then spent a happy evening squeezing out two bucketfuls of this soil stuff which expands in warm water and landscaping the cage (pics as ever will follow shortly)
Since arriving in her new home two days ago she has mainly sat in her prefabricated burrow, although at some stage she ate two crickets and I have now left her with another cricket and a locust to see how she manages. I plan to give her to give her bigger prey to encourage her to feed more aggressively, she has been
understandably a little lazy since the big move.
By the way, locusts are mental, and rather fun too, as long as they don't escape. They don't so much jump as go pop, their steering can be a little haywire too. Maybe not for the faint of heart when there are 2 inch insects which can jump two feet sleeping in the bedroom.
Stella doesn't mind though, when
offered one of the smaller ones (about inch and a half) she had immobilised it in less than three seconds of it hitting the floor. 30 minutes later she was doing the tarantula
equivalent of sitting on a couch,
watching TV with a beer, feeling absolutely stuffed and quite content, she really is a legend.....