Larry the Tarantula

[elfs]

So, Storm got a Tarantula as a prize at a local political event she and Omaha attended on election night. It's a spiderling Costa Rican Tiger Rump, which is known to be skittish, with a highly irritating but not dangerously venomous bite. And after two days in his little canister, we had to go get Larry food and learn how to care for him properly. Larry is named after a local union operative, make of that what you will.

Storm and I went up to the pet shop, where a woman familiar with tarantulas gave us the skinny, sold us five crickets (a dime a pop, from a big box of hoppy bugs) and sent us merrily on our way.

Larry had been sluggish all day, but when we tossed in an extra half-inch of dirt and five crickets, Larry went to town. Kouryou-chan is terrified of spiders, but even she thought watching Larry pounce on a cricket and suck it dry of precious cricket bodily juices was cool. The three of us watched intently. Storm positively cooed. "He's so cute!"

And now Storm knows how to tell when Larry's hungry: he follows her finger around the side of his cage, hoping for food.

We need a medium-sized fishbowl to start, and then we'll move on to a full-sized terrarium when the spiderling grows to be more than two inches on a side. We did get the foot-long forceps for cleaning out cricket carcasses.

Comments

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Did the petshop person give you an idea how long Larry may live? I know some species of tarantulas can live up to 20 years.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The Costa Rican varieties are short-lived, 3-5 years.

[urox.livejournal.com]

"foot-long forceps"

So this isn't a holding tarantula?

Also, have you been pre-warned about when tarantulas molt, they look like they're dead because they're on their backs? And shortly afterward because they're exhausted?

[katybeth]

Cute!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Storm, YKIOKWaaaaaaayOT... :)

jenkitty had one quite some years ago.

Called him Alister Crawley. *rim shot*

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

My sister Tara had a tarantula named Caroline Kitten. Be careful, tarantulas flick hairs that can get in eyes and other places, and irritate those areas.