Bugs and spiders everywhere, what a busy week I've had. The spiders that should have arrived last Friday were held up in the post until Monday and then I received a large number of scorpions, spiders and millipedes on Wednesday, grasshoppers came in yesterday and I have more spiders coming in today. I have spent many hours sorting out all the new stock on top of the usual feeding, cleaning, posting and paperwork! I really must cut back a bit now or all of Christmas and New Year will be taken up with running my 'mini zoo'. I've got some great creatures and they all seem happy and healthy.
When a customer sent me photos of his Barking Birdeater spiderlings, I could be patient no longer and decided to open one of my Barking Birdeater egg sacs. I was really pleased to see plump little 'eggs with legs'. They are quite active and should be moulting into spiderlings soon. One of my Trinidad Olive spiders is looking like she could be an adult female. It is difficult to tell if she is fully adult but I will feed her up, introduce her to my mature male and see what happens. I got some more Ladybird spiders this week, I would absolutely love to breed these, they are small but so cute. They really do have pretty little faces and talking of cute the Horse-head grasshoppers are looking so sweet, they really do have great faces. I keep seeing pictures of them on TV and in magazines, they are often labelled as stick insects. Their body may look like a stick insect and they feed on bramble but they are definitely grasshoppers. I got some more nymphs in yesterday, these are another bug that I would really like to breed myself.
It is so difficult to get a balance with my stock. I love to get unusual animals and learn about them but I need to be more realistic as there is only ever going to be one of me. It would never be practical to employ someone when I work at home and fit everything in around my family. I have got to 'try' and be a bit more practical. All year people have been asking me to get Land Hermit Crabs, I finally got some last month and only one person has purchased any. I think Hermit crabs are amazing but they are now taking up a large tank and sadly they are the one thing that I keep and have no chance of breeding. Although they are land crabs, their young live in the sea. Larger beetles are another animal that I really should avoid, they are costly, time consuming and rarely sell. I really don't need any more pets! Having said that, we are going to the Discover Dogs exhibition at Earls Court tomorrow. I miss my dog so much, they really are part of the family and I honestly feel like I lost a relative in August when she died. We are just going to 'look' at dogs. My hubby is not as keen as our daughter Georgie and I are!
I must mention Facebook, ok I give in - I am still receiving loads on invitations to become a friend of Uncle Tom Cobley and all. I put a note on my home page but still the requests come thick and fast. I know nothing about social networking but I will sort out my profile and give it a go. It may have to wait until Christmas though, as you can tell, I don't have a lot of time at the moment. It is definitely a job for my daughter, possibly my mother in-law too, she is a real silver-surfer and loves her Facebook world.
One last thing, I started a new size category for tarantulas a few months ago and it has really taken off but I wish I had thought a bit more about the name. I called the category small-medium but it should have been called juvenile. I am now faced with the task of changing each and every entry. The size is that of a grown on spiderling, the body length is generally around 1.5cm, depending on species. Juvenile will look much better than small-medium, I just didn't realise how this category would grow, initially it was just for a few spiders. I will be changing over during the next week or so but it may take longer to go through each individual species. Spiders come and go all the time and they are constantly moulting so it is difficult to keep up with the sizing. The small size may be anything from a tiny dot to a juvenile. I generally 'upgrade' a spider when I am feeding it and notice that it has grown!
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