Picture time

I managed to get some pictures taken this morning of all the new arrivals apart from the Avicularia purpurea which seems to like living on the lid of it's enclosure. Never mind, I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities to photo it again!

I've scaled down the pictures to try and get them to fit on the page a little better, so you will need to click on them to view them in full size.


Brachypelma emilia


Cyclosternum fasciatum


Ceratogyrus marshalli


Euathlus vulpinus


Grammostola pulchra


Grammostola rosea


Nhandu chromatus

They're here!!!

The slings have finally arrived! Unfortunately though, as I mentioned yesterday, the Brachypelma albiceps was indeed out of stock, so I have had to pick a replacement.

The decision was between the Ceratogyrus darlingi (Eastern Horned Baboon) and the Avicularia purpurea (Purple Pink Toe), but I finally chose the Avic because I'm already getting a horned baboon, and I would like an arboreal spider for my collection too.

I wasn't actually a fan of the Avicularia genus until today. I never really understood what all the fuss was about, but as soon as I saw the spiderling with its little feet I couldn't resist.

My first observations of my spiderlings are that the Ceratogyrus marhsalli (Straight Horned Baboon) is going to be a bit of a lunatic! It spend about five minutes doing laps of it's new home before finally settling down. Everything else is pretty calm, but I'm looking forward to feeding night tomorrow!

Unfortunately there are no pictures yet, they will hopefully come tomorrow when I am able to get some natural light into my room to take some good photos.

Some bad news

Got some bad news today!

For whatever reason, the Spider Shop only sent out the delivery today instead of yesterday, so no slings today. They will be hear tomorrow instead.

However, it appears that I am going to be one sling down because the Brachypelma albiceps was apparantly out of stock, despite still appearing on their website after numerous updates to the spider list.

So, if any you guys who are following my blog no of anyone who as any B.albiceps slings, please let me know @ dg.toast@gmail.com!

The first sling arrives

Great news! My first sling has arrived, the B.emilia.

Unfortunately it has come with only seven legs, but it will hopefully grow back within a few moults.

I'm going to hold off naming it until I can sex it.

The light in my room isn't very good, so pictures are gonna have to wait until I can take some pictures in a more natural light, so probably on Friday.

Setting up the nursery

With my sling choices sorted, the next job to do was to set up the nursery, where they would be spending the coming months as spiderlings.

My plan was to get hold of eight spiderling pots and place them in an Exo Terra faunarium, which would be heated by a heat mat. Luckily, my Dad had a spare heat mat which fitted the the faunarium perfectly. I decided to place the heatmat on the side of the faunarium, and NOT underneath. Whilst this topic is still hotly debated, it is a popular belief that under tank heating can actually kill a tarantula through dehydration.

After checking the heat mat was working, I then attached it to the side of the faunarium with a mix of duct tape and sticky back plastic, and attached it to a thermostat which would help keep the temperature in the nursery constant. After checking the temperature requirements of all the slings I would be getting, I decided on setting the thermostat to between 76F and 78F.

With the heating sorted, humidity was my next concern. All my slings would need humidity of above 60% so I put in a small layer of vermiculite on the bottom of the faunarium, which I will keep moist to help with humidity. If I find that the pots are still too dry, I will be dropping in small droplets of water using a pipette to avoid drowning the slings. However, warm and humid conditions are perfect for mold growth, which can actually kill a spider.

I've only managed to acquire two pots, the others are coming with the slings, so I have filled them ready with Coco-Fibre, a popular substrate choice amongst tarantula keepers.

I've included some pictures, so you can see what I mean:



The whole setup




The sling pots




The base of the faunarium

Choosing the slings

Before I figured out how to set up the nursery, I needed to know what slings I would be getting in order to figure out the correct humidity and temperature requirements.

This was a surprisingly easy choice, as there was only one place I could buy from and that was The Spider Shop, a great resource for new and experienced keepers. They have a wide variety of tarantulas of different sizes, from adults all the way down to spiderlings.

I was looking to have a good mix of tarantulas. Different species of tarantulas grow at different rates, so I was looking for a mix of fast growing and slow growing, which would offset the cost of having to move all the babies into bigger enclosures at the same time. Some species, such as the Grammostola rosea (Chile Rose) are notorious for growing very slowly. I've read on various forums that keepers who have had G.rosea slings for two years have only seen it grow an inch and a half, whereas other species can mature in that time.

The other thing I was looking for was temperament. I wanted a mix of docile spiders, which I would feel confident handling and others which have a lot more attitude and generally are not good for handling. Again, the G.rosea is an excellent starter species, and if you're looking for a tarantula you can handle, this is an excellent candidate.

Another important factor was rarity. As new species and sub-species of tarantula are found on a regular basis, I wanted ones that not every one in the hobby as, but I also wanted a few that I could compare with many other keepers of the same species. The G.rosea for example is extremely common, and others such as the Grammostola pulchra (Brazilian Black)are not often found in the hobby.



A mature female G.pulchra


Last, but by no means least, and probably the factor many of you would regard as the most important factor, is looks. I wanted, where possible, to have distinctive spiders. The Ceratogyrus marshalli (Straight Horned Baboon)for example has a horn on it's carapace that can grow up to an inch in length which is something that I cannot quite believe, whereas others like the Nhandu chromatus (White Striped Birdeater) have brilliant white stripes on its legs and superb red hairs on its abdomen.



A N.chromatus



So, without further ado, here is my list:

Grammostola rosea (Chile Rose)
Grammostola pulchra (Brazilian Black)
Ceratogyrus marshalli (Straight Horned Baboon)
Nhandu chromatus (White Striped Birdeater)
Brachypelma albicpes (Aemula Gold Red Rump)
Cyclosternum fasciatum (Costa Rican Tiger Rump)
Euathlus vulpinus (Chilean Ocellated)

Throughout the selection process, I had also been toying with the idea of adding a Brachypelma emilia (Mexican Red Leg) to the group, as we had two slings in work. As one was sold today, I decided I had to grab the last one!

Hello, and welcome to The Spiderling Project

Hello, and thanks for tuning in. I’ll start off with a little info about myself, and why I decided to raise my own set of spiderlings.

My name is Kurt Baird, and I’m a 19 year old from Cardiff, Wales. I’ve have always had a keen interest in the majority of animals that walk this planet, and tarantulas are no exception. However, the interest was merely fueled by TV documentaries and I wasn’t really aware you could keep tarantulas as pets.

However, on an August day in 2008 me and my parents went to Longleat Safari Park where one of the keepers kindly brought out Red, the male Grammostola rosea (Chile Rose) whom any fans of Animal Park will remember from a recent episode when he was used in their breeding program for their G.rosea’s. After a lengthy handling session, my dad, who also had a keen interest in tarantula’s started researching into keeping his own pet tarantula.



A G.rosea


About two weeks later I came home from holiday to find that he had indeed brought a Brachypelma smithi (Mexican Red Knee). The B.smithi is widely regarded as one of the best starter tarantulas due to its docile temperament and its ease to care for. Since then, we have collected a total of eight sub-adult or adult tarantulas, which you can find on the left hand side of the page.



My B.smithi


Because the tarantulas are kept in his room, I never really had much exposure to them, and it was not until I recently started a work placement at Reptile Cyrmu, my local exotic pet shop, that I had constant exposure to them, and working with them closely for a number of weeks has increased my fascination hugely, so much so that I now want to try and raise my own collection by rearing a set of spiderlings (A.K.A slings).

In the next few days, I will be writing about my sling choices and how I am going to set up their nursery area for them to live, before they arrive hopefully on Thursday.