Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Summer is almost over, we are nearly into September and the Autumn. I think it's been a pretty good summer, nice and hot, which is just how I like it. I'm now looking ahead to the dilemma of my Winter postal charges. I have up until now always kept my postal charges the same throughout the year but I am totally undecided what to do this year. Royal Mail Special Delivery costs have soared and once a heat pack is added to the box, plus extra packaging for insulation, plus larger boxes are needed, the price is far more than during the warmer months. Sadly I think I will at least need to charge £1.00 for the heat pack, I don't want to lose customers and have thought of making the heat pack an optional extra. However I really can't do that as it would mean the animals suffering and possibly even dying in transit. I think it would have to be a compulsory charge but I don't think I can just ignore the cost this year. I'm clearly still thinking about it, feel free to ...

I hate spiders! Not the big, furry, eight legged hamster types; the little, leggy ones, colonising my bug room! They seem to have hatched out everywhere and are making themselves at home in each nook and cranny. I keep wiping everything down and paying special attention to the underside of the shelves but they seem to be multiplying on a daily basis. I wish I had something that would eat them. I did think about releasing little geckoes into the bug room but they would probably eat everything except the spiders and I don't think the conditions would be right. I don't want to be cruel to them. The bug room is all going great apart from the spiders. I have mated my Vietnam Earth Tiger tarantulas this week, fingers crossed I will have an egg sac soon. The baby Vietnam scorpions have now left the safety of their mother's back and are feeding independently but I have not had any other scorpions give birth. I'm still waiting for the obviously pregnant Imperial and Flat R...

What a difference a week makes. This time last week I was moaning about a lack of orders and then this week I've been extremely busy. Unfortunately there have been ongoing problems with my payment system for a few customers. It seems PayPal have been refusing their payments. This problem can be overcome by choosing bank transfer or paying by cheque/cash but it has been causing considerable annoyance for a little while now. I am really sorry if this has affected you. My website guy is very busy at the moment, he too works alone on a self employed basis and can never catch up on all his work (I really know that feeling!) however he has thankfully rearranged his time and has been upgrading my website this week. He tells me it will entirely solve the problem and should be completed within the next few days. As usual I simply don't understand how the computer, website, internet or anything else technical works, it is all magic to me and I expect it to just get on and 'work...

Where is everyone? On holiday I strongly suspect. I have had very few orders come in this week but I have had a steady flow of new stock arrive (just need to sell some of it now). I am trying to use my website more effectively and improve things but it just doesn't come naturally to me! I need to find a way that makes it easier to search for the animal you are looking for, especially tarantulas. I have a huge number of tarantulas and various sizes of each species so it is no easy task. My website guy suggested upgrading my site yesterday, panic set in but he has assured me it will be much the same as it is now but vastly improved. That sounds ok but as my regular readers will know I seriously don't like change! I didn't realise until recently that when my website was updated last October this meant that the old website would be 'switched off/deleted from the server'. I have now lost the previous two years information. The customer records are still there but the o...

Cracked it! In desperation I moved my obviously pregnant scorpions into new cages this week, I put them in my office for a couple of days (change of scenery) and then took them for a drive around in the car. The very next day one of the scorpions gave birth and the day after that another gave birth. I really don't know why and I'd love someone to tell me - why do scorpions hang onto their young and only give birth after they have 'been on a journey'? I have lost count of how many times I've posted out a scorpion, only for it to give birth a week or so later. I have had my scorpions for months and in the case of my huge Imperial, well over a year. I have known pregnant scorpions to reabsorb the young or actually die with the young perishing inside them. It is very sad and very puzzling. I will continue to take the remaining scorpions on trips but it is generally either too hot or too cold to leave them in the car and I don't really have any family or friends...