Chaos218Gnostic
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2018
- Messages
- 3
Edited to remove swearing
I just started my journey into the world of spiders. I just got my first two I have ever owned about a month ago. They are a female juvenile golden orb weaver and an unsexed hatchling golden orb weaver. The unsexed hatchling is more likely to turn out female as they try to remove males but some still end up male. My female juvenile is named Phobia and my unsexed hatchling is currently called Little Skittle.
I'm having great luck with Phobia and shes getting a nice weight and growing well. I've been feeding her flys that started out as maggots and grew into flys. She ate maggots when first arriving but after becoming flys, they proved difficult getting into her enclosure but worked fine as food once they became fully grown which only took a few days. I would have to get them cold to make it easier to add to the enclosure but they would still be tricky and I don't enjoy the flys escaping while trying to throw into her enclosure. I had so many that a lot died eventually and so shes been eating the dead ones until I go pick up some live food tomorrow. Thinking of trying crickets.
I think I overfed her at first too because she put on weight so fast. I got a picture of her after her first feeding of maggots and I'll take a current picture to show the difference. She lost a little bit of weight just eating the dead left over flys but is still nice weight. She was probably to fat for about a week though. Also the tank became a mess from the flys after I believe I overfed her, so I had to remove her webbing and clean the inside of the glass. She had to build her web all over and I think that stressed her out since shes stilll learning to climb correctly with her webbing to build her web to the height she likes. Shes got a nice thick and very layered web perfect for holding live food more towards the bottle of the tank that seem good for catching live crickets and her webbing from the mid level to the top is where she likes hanging out. Since flys proved difficult getting into her home without adding to much, made such a huge mess and died fast, I was going to try crickets since they are easy to use and keep alive. Plus they don't dirty up glass like flys and so I won't have to clean the enclosure and destroy her webbing as much. I had lizards when I was a child and am familiar with storing crickets and they are easy to get into an enclosure without any getting loose in the house and always stayed alive until ready to feed. Her bottom webbing is strong enough to hold crickets but her main webbing higher up isnt layered and so I would likely have to remove some of the crickets legs to toss in her preferred chill spot. What are other good options for food? Would she eat house centipedes at all? They will be popping up around the house as it gets closer to spring and me and my cat hunt them down yearly since they are annoying. I would likely cripple the centipedes enough to where they are crippled and injured but still alive. I just thought crippling them would be better so they dont try and harm the spider and I could just toss them into her web. And I have bees that get into the house that my cat kills and didnt know if dead bees are good. My cat is weird about my spider and almost acts like she knows Phobia is apart of the family. She is protective over people going around Phobias enclosure and doesnt look at her like the bugs she hunts
I use a bottle to mist the enclosure for humidity and to help with hydration. I mist her enclosure and webbing every couple days, is this enough? She seems to be healthy and doing fine and so it seems like things are going perfect for her. But since all shes had this past week were dead flys, I just want to get her some live food for the hydration and need info on good food choices that wont crap all over the inside of the glass like the flys did and made a huge mess that required me to clean and destroy her first web set up. I felt bad making her start over after cleaning the fly mess. But I feel her new webbing is better designed and will be more beneficial.
Here is my main problem, I'm having trouble with the hatchling Little Skittle. I made it a home in a nice set up Tupperware container and seemed to go smoothly at first. Its been eating fruit flys but doesn't seem to be gaining any weight and I'm worried. Its webbing isn't holding the flys to well and so I thought about moving it in with Phobia but I'm scared she will eat it or it will end up being male and I dont want any breeding and ending up with a lot of spiders that I can't take care of. I just thought that since her enclosure has such strong webbing that catches everything, Little Skittle could eat a little better in Phobias enclosure and have better humidity. What's my best option with this hatchling? If it can't be kept safely with the juvenile, should I continue trying with the set up its in for it right now, or should I offer it as food to Phobia? I would like to find it another home with someone with more experience. Since it's my pet, it's more important to me than any random spider or bug wild and so it's my responsibility to take care of it. I'm sure people on this forum will understand what I mean. It's just not right to take on a pet that I can't care for and I feel horrible.
Any tips are appreciated. I'm really worried about little.skittle, it's so sweet and docile that it enjoys being handled. My juvenile Phobia only tolerates me handling her when needed but I wouldnt say it enjoys to be handled like the hatchling does. I just don't want my hatchling to suffer an unnecessary death and would rather find someone to give it to that has more experience than me if I can't save it myself, or feed it to the juvenile so at least its death isn't for no reason. Or if I can get tips to try and save it, I want to try to keep it alive.
When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures of both little Skittle and older and recent pictures of Phobia and show the size of Phobias enclosure. It's a perfect size enclosure for now, but how big of an enclosure will she need when fully grown and about how long does it take from juvenile to becoming an adult so I can save money for a bigger one when needed.
I bought her current home on sale for only $20. It was originally $45 or $50 but happened to be on sale and so that's why I didn't just buy a bigger one right now. It was advertised for mainly tarantulas but it's a taller enclosure and seems way more appropriate for true spiders that prefer taller rather than wider enclosures since they are web builders. Plus it will be nice to keep for other true spiders in the future once I switch her into a bigger one. I just hate it only opens from the top and I have to knock off any webbing she attaches to the top part it opens from but it's not to big of a deal. I'm going to make sure her final home opens from both the top screen like this one does but also can open from the side of the enclosure so I have multiple options to choose from. I just need some advice on everything since I'm stopping by the pet store tomorrow for food and whatever else I might need to help save Little Skittle.
Again I'm new to spiders. Most my exotic pet experience is with venomous snakes and are my true calling and what I'm more experienced with but I live with family members so I refuse to bring hot snakes into the home and they don't want any snakes in the home anyways or else I would get a safe rear fang like a false water cobra. They might tolerate me getting a couple western hognose snakes to breed though, but as of right now, spiders are a better pet while living with family. And I've watched a lot of nature documentaries showing that even venomous spiders like black widows are unlikely to bite in the first place and are thus safer (not saying I plan on getting a black widow, it's just a thought and it's been proven they arent the monsters people think and experts have handled them to prove their unlikely to bite for no reason) than say keeping my copperheads I gave up for adoption and the siamese spitting cobra I got to babysit for a few months. I didn't handle the cobra really at all, just would manipulate it as needed when cleaning the enclosure but I'm very experienced with copperheads and can usually freehandle them once they are relaxed. With my Parkinsonism symptoms though, it requires me taking clonazepam so I'm relaxed and have better movement. Talking very low doses of course because I need reflexes and clear judgement. Copperheads are usually docile and can be freehandled for around 20 minutes as long as you make slow movements and let it come to you wanting to be held. I use hook to remove them and set them a distance away and let them come to me. Then some copperheads are the antichrist and don't want shit to do with people. Hot snakes seem to tolerate being handled though since it seems they understand you are keeping them safe, fed, and give them everything they need. I believe many snakes enjoy being kept in captivity because they have protection from predators and are kept fed and healthy. Not all snakes are like that, but it seems many have an understanding they have a healthier and easier life in captivity.
I just started my journey into the world of spiders. I just got my first two I have ever owned about a month ago. They are a female juvenile golden orb weaver and an unsexed hatchling golden orb weaver. The unsexed hatchling is more likely to turn out female as they try to remove males but some still end up male. My female juvenile is named Phobia and my unsexed hatchling is currently called Little Skittle.
I'm having great luck with Phobia and shes getting a nice weight and growing well. I've been feeding her flys that started out as maggots and grew into flys. She ate maggots when first arriving but after becoming flys, they proved difficult getting into her enclosure but worked fine as food once they became fully grown which only took a few days. I would have to get them cold to make it easier to add to the enclosure but they would still be tricky and I don't enjoy the flys escaping while trying to throw into her enclosure. I had so many that a lot died eventually and so shes been eating the dead ones until I go pick up some live food tomorrow. Thinking of trying crickets.
I think I overfed her at first too because she put on weight so fast. I got a picture of her after her first feeding of maggots and I'll take a current picture to show the difference. She lost a little bit of weight just eating the dead left over flys but is still nice weight. She was probably to fat for about a week though. Also the tank became a mess from the flys after I believe I overfed her, so I had to remove her webbing and clean the inside of the glass. She had to build her web all over and I think that stressed her out since shes stilll learning to climb correctly with her webbing to build her web to the height she likes. Shes got a nice thick and very layered web perfect for holding live food more towards the bottle of the tank that seem good for catching live crickets and her webbing from the mid level to the top is where she likes hanging out. Since flys proved difficult getting into her home without adding to much, made such a huge mess and died fast, I was going to try crickets since they are easy to use and keep alive. Plus they don't dirty up glass like flys and so I won't have to clean the enclosure and destroy her webbing as much. I had lizards when I was a child and am familiar with storing crickets and they are easy to get into an enclosure without any getting loose in the house and always stayed alive until ready to feed. Her bottom webbing is strong enough to hold crickets but her main webbing higher up isnt layered and so I would likely have to remove some of the crickets legs to toss in her preferred chill spot. What are other good options for food? Would she eat house centipedes at all? They will be popping up around the house as it gets closer to spring and me and my cat hunt them down yearly since they are annoying. I would likely cripple the centipedes enough to where they are crippled and injured but still alive. I just thought crippling them would be better so they dont try and harm the spider and I could just toss them into her web. And I have bees that get into the house that my cat kills and didnt know if dead bees are good. My cat is weird about my spider and almost acts like she knows Phobia is apart of the family. She is protective over people going around Phobias enclosure and doesnt look at her like the bugs she hunts
I use a bottle to mist the enclosure for humidity and to help with hydration. I mist her enclosure and webbing every couple days, is this enough? She seems to be healthy and doing fine and so it seems like things are going perfect for her. But since all shes had this past week were dead flys, I just want to get her some live food for the hydration and need info on good food choices that wont crap all over the inside of the glass like the flys did and made a huge mess that required me to clean and destroy her first web set up. I felt bad making her start over after cleaning the fly mess. But I feel her new webbing is better designed and will be more beneficial.
Here is my main problem, I'm having trouble with the hatchling Little Skittle. I made it a home in a nice set up Tupperware container and seemed to go smoothly at first. Its been eating fruit flys but doesn't seem to be gaining any weight and I'm worried. Its webbing isn't holding the flys to well and so I thought about moving it in with Phobia but I'm scared she will eat it or it will end up being male and I dont want any breeding and ending up with a lot of spiders that I can't take care of. I just thought that since her enclosure has such strong webbing that catches everything, Little Skittle could eat a little better in Phobias enclosure and have better humidity. What's my best option with this hatchling? If it can't be kept safely with the juvenile, should I continue trying with the set up its in for it right now, or should I offer it as food to Phobia? I would like to find it another home with someone with more experience. Since it's my pet, it's more important to me than any random spider or bug wild and so it's my responsibility to take care of it. I'm sure people on this forum will understand what I mean. It's just not right to take on a pet that I can't care for and I feel horrible.
Any tips are appreciated. I'm really worried about little.skittle, it's so sweet and docile that it enjoys being handled. My juvenile Phobia only tolerates me handling her when needed but I wouldnt say it enjoys to be handled like the hatchling does. I just don't want my hatchling to suffer an unnecessary death and would rather find someone to give it to that has more experience than me if I can't save it myself, or feed it to the juvenile so at least its death isn't for no reason. Or if I can get tips to try and save it, I want to try to keep it alive.
When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures of both little Skittle and older and recent pictures of Phobia and show the size of Phobias enclosure. It's a perfect size enclosure for now, but how big of an enclosure will she need when fully grown and about how long does it take from juvenile to becoming an adult so I can save money for a bigger one when needed.
I bought her current home on sale for only $20. It was originally $45 or $50 but happened to be on sale and so that's why I didn't just buy a bigger one right now. It was advertised for mainly tarantulas but it's a taller enclosure and seems way more appropriate for true spiders that prefer taller rather than wider enclosures since they are web builders. Plus it will be nice to keep for other true spiders in the future once I switch her into a bigger one. I just hate it only opens from the top and I have to knock off any webbing she attaches to the top part it opens from but it's not to big of a deal. I'm going to make sure her final home opens from both the top screen like this one does but also can open from the side of the enclosure so I have multiple options to choose from. I just need some advice on everything since I'm stopping by the pet store tomorrow for food and whatever else I might need to help save Little Skittle.
Again I'm new to spiders. Most my exotic pet experience is with venomous snakes and are my true calling and what I'm more experienced with but I live with family members so I refuse to bring hot snakes into the home and they don't want any snakes in the home anyways or else I would get a safe rear fang like a false water cobra. They might tolerate me getting a couple western hognose snakes to breed though, but as of right now, spiders are a better pet while living with family. And I've watched a lot of nature documentaries showing that even venomous spiders like black widows are unlikely to bite in the first place and are thus safer (not saying I plan on getting a black widow, it's just a thought and it's been proven they arent the monsters people think and experts have handled them to prove their unlikely to bite for no reason) than say keeping my copperheads I gave up for adoption and the siamese spitting cobra I got to babysit for a few months. I didn't handle the cobra really at all, just would manipulate it as needed when cleaning the enclosure but I'm very experienced with copperheads and can usually freehandle them once they are relaxed. With my Parkinsonism symptoms though, it requires me taking clonazepam so I'm relaxed and have better movement. Talking very low doses of course because I need reflexes and clear judgement. Copperheads are usually docile and can be freehandled for around 20 minutes as long as you make slow movements and let it come to you wanting to be held. I use hook to remove them and set them a distance away and let them come to me. Then some copperheads are the antichrist and don't want shit to do with people. Hot snakes seem to tolerate being handled though since it seems they understand you are keeping them safe, fed, and give them everything they need. I believe many snakes enjoy being kept in captivity because they have protection from predators and are kept fed and healthy. Not all snakes are like that, but it seems many have an understanding they have a healthier and easier life in captivity.
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