Baking as a new way of preserving dead Ts

[jake9134]

that oily stuff could be guanine crystals which is a nitrogen waste (instead of urea) aka spider pee.=)

 

[Lolita]

gotta say definitely a interesting way to preserve a T i never would have thought of it. i live in a shared house though so the other residents would so not go for the sticking a tarantula in the oven idea. I am curious to see how it turns out though

 

[lunashimmer]

Update - 72 hrs

72 hours. Ella's opisthosoma has sunk in a little:

But it's not too bad. What do you guys think?

Here are 2 other pics. As you can see, her color is still poppin' and there hasn;t been too much overall shrinkage.

that oily stuff could be guanine crystals which is a nitrogen waste (instead of urea) aka spider pee.=)

So, it's kind of a side effect of baking? The guanine crystals rose to the surface of the body? That would explain why the shiny stuff is much less now than it was when I first pulled her out of the oven. Interesting!

gotta say definitely a interesting way to preserve a T i never would have thought of it. i live in a shared house though so the other residents would so not go for the sticking a tarantula in the oven idea. I am curious to see how it turns out though

Yeah, your housemates might not be too excited to know a tarantula was baked in their oven...

 

[JODECS]

nice idea you got there. I'll try this for preservation purposes of my precious pets that would pass away..the abdomen didn't shrink? nor wrinkled at all?

 

[lunashimmer]

nice idea you got there. I'll try this for preservation purposes of my precious pets that would pass away..the abdomen didn't shrink? nor wrinkled at all?

The pics above were taken last night. There was some slight shrinkage and just a little wrinkling that happened after the baking. Not much at all.

 

[lunashimmer]

1 week out...

It's been a week since I baked her and Ella the preserved T is fine. She has not shrunk any since I posted last. Success!!! :biggrin:

 

[gmrpnk21]

Nice idea with the baking! As for the eating of tarantulas, some countries are very poor and eat ANYTHING they can that is a source of protein. I've seen them eat everything from dung beetles, to crickets, meal worms, tarantulas.... They eat them because it is necessary to SURVIVE so please don't be ignorant and start knocking other countries for what they eat. Our choice to eat other animals does not make us any better than anyone else, and other cultures look down on Americans for eating beef or pork! If the situation were different, you would probably enjoy a tasty tarantula whenever you could!

 

[D3N2]

Nice idea with the baking! As for the eating of tarantulas, some countries are very poor and eat ANYTHING they can that is a source of protein. I've seen them eat everything from dung beetles, to crickets, meal worms, tarantulas.... They eat them because it is necessary to SURVIVE so please don't be ignorant and start knocking other countries for what they eat. Our choice to eat other animals does not make us any better than anyone else, and other cultures look down on Americans for eating beef or pork! If the situation were different, you would probably enjoy a tasty tarantula whenever you could!

There's also been a lot of talk on eating bugs to reduce your carbon footprint. Insects are quite a good source of protein and vitamins, and takes a lot less to produce than, say, beef. Not that I'd be eating bugs myself, just saying.

 

[Vespula]

Cool! This method seems to be working very well. She still looks awesome, too!

 

[DannyH]

There's also been a lot of talk on eating bugs to reduce your carbon footprint. Insects are quite a good source of protein and vitamins, and takes a lot less to produce than, say, beef. Not that I'd be eating bugs myself, just saying.

I know you guys might think I'm REALLY weird for doing this, but on wikipedia it said that many cutures ate crickets, so I kinda ate one. :/
It was very strane, and tasted like slimey rare beef, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think it would be great if we could eat bugs, but I think its to taboo in the western world.

 

[D3N2]

I know you guys might think I'm REALLY weird for doing this, but on wikipedia it said that many cutures ate crickets, so I kinda ate one. :/
It was very strane, and tasted like slimey rare beef, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think it would be great if we could eat bugs, but I think its to taboo in the western world.

LOL Did you eat the cricket raw? I think most cultures that eat crickets cook them first.... When I'm traveling and I see them offered in the streets, they're usually deep-fried.

 

[DannyH]

LOL Did you eat the cricket raw? I think most cultures that eat crickets cook them first.... When I'm traveling and I see them offered in the streets, they're usually deep-fried.

Yup. It was kinda nasty.

 

[lunashimmer]

Update: 10 days

I picked Ella up today for the first time since last week. She's still hard as a rock, but...the oily-yet-not-oily substance that would be on my finger a little after touching her before? It's a lot now. So much so that she was shiny with it--and my hand! So much so that I have her on a paper towel to try to soak some of it up. Strange!

I'll post some more pics later this week. Actually got on the laptop to do some writing and got sucked into the Interwebs. :sarcasm:

Yup. It was kinda nasty.

Ok, ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! :barf: And LOL!

 

[lunashimmer]

Almost a month out - UPDATE

The baked tarantula is a complete success.

I've had her on a paper towel for the past 2 weeks to absorb the oily/guanine crystal stuff, so I checked her out last night. The stuff had pretty much gone away, she looks just like the pics in my previous posts, no more shrinking or loss of color. So yay!

The only thing is, while I was looking at her, her abdomen broke away from her carapace. So now I have a baked T in two parts. But it was kind of cool because I can see inside her carapace--there's a hole that I would assume is either for hemolymph or the pumping stomach. Neat! I think she'll glue back together just fine for my shadowbox project.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Cool, thanks for updating. Now my dead inverts won't look like they belong in a Miami retirement community.

 

[jebbewocky]

I wonder how this would work in a crockpot instead of an oven?

 

[zonbonzovi]

I wonder how this would work in a crockpot instead of an oven?

Would it retain too much moisture? Maybe if the lid were removed, the moisture would dissipate much faster? Interesting suggestion...[goes to switch on the crockpot]

 

[xhexdx]

I wonder how this would work in a crockpot instead of an oven?

Badly .

 

[lunashimmer]

Cool, thanks for updating. Now my dead inverts won't look like they belong in a Miami retirement community.

HAHA!!!

I wonder how this would work in a crockpot instead of an oven?

I would NOT recommend drying out a T in a Crockpot. They don't reach a high enough temp quick enough, IMO. They're called "slowcookers" not "slowbakers". I think the only other appliance that would work besides the oven is a dehydrator.

Badly .

Lol, +1.