i know she's not as cute as peyton the dog, but she's not doing well and i'm to the point of force-feeding her to try and save her life.

when she was healthy:


now:



now let's see if tww really has a heart.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 12:23 PM. Reason : ps- i don't pray, but it's a better title than "send 'get well' wishes to my tarantula" ]

3/6/2008 12:20:12 PM

how old is she?

3/6/2008 12:20:54 PM

I don't pray, but I hope she gets better.

3/6/2008 12:20:59 PM

nothing personal, but I really hope it dies.

love,

an Arachnophobic.

3/6/2008 12:21:03 PM

i don't know her exact age, but she's probably at least 5. she's barely halfway fully-grown (4" compared to a whopping 8" max).

3/6/2008 12:22:30 PM

3/6/2008 12:23:28 PM

That thing needs fire and lots of it.

3/6/2008 12:24:59 PM

how do you forcefeed a tarantula?

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 12:25 PM. Reason : I hope it gets better]

3/6/2008 12:25:14 PM

thats sad.... how long do they normally live???

3/6/2008 12:26:34 PM

In all seriousness, do people cry over dead spider pets? I can see crying over something affectionate/funny/sweet dying but just can't envision the tears over a spider.

3/6/2008 12:29:33 PM

Agreed, its a stupid spider

3/6/2008 12:30:43 PM

im sorry your spider isn't doing well, and i hope she gets better and stays alive, as long as it stays the hell away from me

love,

another Arachnophobic.

3/6/2008 12:31:47 PM

Quote :

"how do you forcefeed a tarantula?"

3/6/2008 12:32:15 PM

How do you learn a spider's personality ?

3/6/2008 12:32:40 PM

when it's something you care about, and which is completely reliant on you for your survival, i think it's natural to develop some form of emotional attachment to it. even if it's not "cute and furry."

she could probably live to be 20 years if i can get her well again. she molted and for some reason never came back out of her burrow to eat or drink. i finally dug her up when i saw how bad she was getting, and started trying to help her regain her strength. i believe she got some water in her the first night, but she's been refusing to eat or drink since.

you force-feed by gently picking them up and slowly putting roach guts on their mouth parts until they swallow it. you have to watch out for the fangs, though. maybe i'll get the husband to take a couple pictures tonight when i do it again.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 12:35 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2008 12:33:22 PM

im sorry your spider isn't doing well, and i hope she gets better and stays alive, as long as it stays the hell away from me

love,

another Arachnophobic.

3/6/2008 12:36:21 PM

I thought pet tarantulas had their fangs removed?

and how old is she?

3/6/2008 12:36:44 PM

I had to force feed my old ball python a couple times, and I hated that...but this seems like I would hate it even more

3/6/2008 12:40:15 PM

removing a tarantulas fangs would prevent them from being able to consume anything that wasn't a lump of mush. there is also no such thing as removing the venom sacs from a tarantula. that would remove any capacity to digest its food.

3/6/2008 12:48:40 PM

An attractive girl with a pet tarantula.

Interesting.

3/6/2008 1:01:15 PM

Quote :

"That thing needs fire and lots of it."

3/6/2008 1:12:07 PM

^^actually, about 130-140 taratulas...

3/6/2008 1:13:18 PM

no longer attractive those things scare me.

3/6/2008 1:14:06 PM

3/6/2008 1:14:43 PM

i'm sorry that you spider isn't doing well, good luck with the force feeding.

and she would be cute and furry if the hair wasn't a defense mechanism...and the fangs

3/6/2008 1:39:02 PM

I hope she gets better soon.

3/6/2008 1:39:14 PM

Quote :

"nothing personal, but I really hope it dies. love, an Arachnophobic."

just looking at those pics makes my skin tingle... I hate spiders with a passion

sorry

3/6/2008 1:40:35 PM

Take the Tarantula to a vet?

3/6/2008 1:43:10 PM

Quote :

"and she would be cute and furry if the hair wasn't a defense mechanism...and the fangs "

she's an old world species (african, to be specific), so no hairs. but yes, she could pack quite a punch with her venom.

3/6/2008 1:43:30 PM

i can't even tell the difference in the before and after pics

but you can probably tell if an ant is a male or female just by glancing, or some other crazy animal whispering type skill

3/6/2008 1:45:27 PM

why does your spider have 10 legs?

3/6/2008 1:46:37 PM

did the last 10 or so people just fail to notice the....

Quote :

"you force-feed by gently picking them up and slowly putting roach guts on their mouth parts until they swallow it."

and that there are more then 100 of them? Why so many??

i mean

OHhhh- and i hope he gets better (can't see a big diffrence between sick and well except that it looks like it has more white hair thingys) Love and anrachniphobic who can't spell

i still can't believe you dug a tarantula out of burrow, ppl on the internet are nuts

3/6/2008 1:53:49 PM

the front set are pedipalps, not true legs.

healthy, she had a full abdomen and a great deal of energy spent burrowing. they also stand up, with their body held above the ground.

now, she has a shrunken abdomen and is very weak. when i dug her up, her legs were beginning to curl under her (called a "death curl"). after trying to hydrate her, her legs uncurled but she still lacks the energy to stand for more than a few seconds and lays on the ground with her legs sprawled out.

it's pretty much the difference between a normal dog who runs around and plays and a half-dead dog who just lays there and barely moves.

i have over a hundred because i have different species. i think i have 46 species at the moment, ranging from 1 to 20 of a species. just did a count. i have 135 individuals at the moment, plus two males here in loan to breed.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 2:00 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2008 1:54:42 PM

hope she gets better

3/6/2008 1:55:50 PM

Hope he gets better.

3/6/2008 2:02:12 PM

Reasons not to force-feed a spider:

Quote :

"you have to watch out for the fangs"

*shudder*

If you really like this thing, I hope it gets better. But Yiiiiccckkkk.

3/6/2008 2:20:57 PM

yeah, what happens when they bite you or one goes missing?

3/6/2008 2:25:56 PM

haha she don't play with them like a kitten

3/6/2008 2:30:40 PM

if i prayed i'd pray for her, but I dont so i just wish for her to get better on the holy chicken of mecca.

really tho i hope you can get her better

3/6/2008 2:32:17 PM

130-140????

holy crap woman

3/6/2008 2:39:55 PM

^ and i want a LOT more

but i've held off from getting any lately due to a rash of unexplained spider deaths. we suspect febreeze air spray

3/6/2008 2:40:56 PM

are you breeding them or doing business with them? or do you just enjoy owning that many? i think you probably like to get one of each kind right? like a kid collecting state quarters or something?

3/6/2008 2:42:15 PM

i'd like to have at least one of many, many species i'm interested in. eventually i'll get into breeding them, but most are still too young. for the ones who are old enough, it's hard to get them to lay fertile sacs due to specific gestation requirements (temperature, etc).

3/6/2008 2:44:20 PM

LOL

FERTILE

SACS

3/6/2008 2:46:09 PM

I hope that she gets better.

3/6/2008 2:52:00 PM

That spider looks like shit.

I don't think I could bring myself to force feed a sick bug, especially if I had over a hundred of them.

Also, why don't you force feed it with tweezers or something, so that you don't have to watch out for fangs?

3/6/2008 3:41:01 PM

Your only option.

3/6/2008 3:47:47 PM

i'm going to use tweezers. initially, i hoped putting a roach literally in her mouth would entice her to eat it, but she dropped it and showed no interest. so now i have to put roach guts on her mouth parts and wait till she swallows it (via a drinking reflex) and then repeat numerous times.

it's gonna be a LONG night.

3/6/2008 3:50:45 PM

you're such a good mama!

3/6/2008 3:52:30 PM

I had no idea there were old world tarantulas, I thought they were all south/central American, you have educated me today

Here's a thought....
1) smash up a bunch of roaches
2) suck the guts up into a syringe
3) feed with large plastic object
4) Profit (and no envenomnated fingers)

I'm not sure if that is what you were going to anyway, but holding a decapitated roach over the gaping maw of a sick and possibly pissed off spider seems kind of crazy and you are a good mommy

3/6/2008 4:02:42 PM