A Tarantula on Its Back

Um, OK, let me preface this with the fact that I am a science teacher. Because I am a science teacher, kids bring me animals. Sometimes they're alive. Sometimes they're roadkill. Sometimes they're animals I can stand to keep. This one...well, he's questionable. The kid who gave him to me, also questionable. Anyway, Sleeping Beauty (oh, I did NOT name him) has been with me for about 9 months. In the beginning, he refused to eat. I thought he was going to die until I saw him kill that first cricket. Then he finally molted, how exciting...I didn't see it happen, but I saw the molt and was thrilled, so I gave him a bigger cage. Then today, we had just dumped in a new batch of crickets and I had walked past him to check on the dinner status, and he was lying on his back.

OOOH! Say all you who know tarantulas. Realize that nowhere in my teacher manuals is there anything about tarantula behavior. So I freaked out and thought he was dying. I tapped on the side of the container, and he moved, so I didn't know what to think. Google. Amazing thing, Google. Apparently, this little sucker is going to molt again. Wow. Very cool. But also apparently it's bad to have the crickets in there while he's molting because he's very vulnerable. So my son, a 10-year-old with a very strong heart, offered to pick out all the crickets by hand (with a molting tarantula in the cage). Weird kid, yes. I tried using a fish net, but shockingly the little suckers kept jumping out of the net. And then, since apparently he's not going to want to eat for a week or so post-molt, and because I don't have a great method for keeping crickets alive for very long, I let the crickets go in my yard.

It's been a weird afternoon. Here's Sleeping Beauty now. On his back. Explains why he's been so cranky lately. And he's gonna want sex afterwards. Silly boy...I don't have any spare female tarantulas lying around (thank god).



Maybe I'll be able to get a molt picture later. Because I know there's a bunch of Quilt Art people reading this blog and it has absolutely nothing to do with fabric (oh hey, I sewed a backing together today. Wooo!). There. Fabric content.

Actually, I'm currently sewing up a snake. A fabric snake.