Monday 15 January 2007

Josephine

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.....

4 comments:

the other cold one said...

When you say largest, how big will she grow to? And if you're not worried about sharing the room with two tarantulas, then crickets are probably not high on fear factor...

London Son said...

She should reach about 11"+ Just to update, Josephine has eaten her first locust, it disappeared some time two nights ago. I have now left her with another, I have placed a heat mat under her keeping the temp. at around 23oC. I plan to feed her a lot over the next year or so, combined with the higher temp, she should grow mor quickly.

Anonymous said...

Mum of LS wants to know whether Josephine would like a hotty too? Also did you know that TOCO now has his own blogspot and that I am wasting even more time on the computer when I should be doing washing up, washing, ironing, making phone calls, sorting out East Cork stuff etc.....

Actually, I think Our father should set a blog so that we keep you informed of all the goings on at the Cathedral asnd Beeston.

However, we are not computer literate enough to do it. So will keep adding commetns here.

all the best Mum of LS

Anonymous said...

Have just read my above comment and I should add that not only am I illeterate where the computer is concerned, I am also dyslexic when typing. I guess you can still understand what i am trying to say.