My baby lava spider is being such a big…well, baby. Refuses to take live prey, even when it’s tiny. She didn’t eat the cricket I put in there yesterday, so when I saw it still running around in there this morning, I squished it and left it at the burrow entrance. Just came home from work to find it gone. Apparently Princess Prissy still expects someone else to do the hard part for her. 
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Oh, I cried like a baby when Tala died, and I fully expect to have the same reaction to future spider losses. I’m trying to steel myself for Delilah’s inevitable end, because I’ve had her for well over 2 years and widows only tend to live a maximum of 3 years, so I know I probably won’t have her that much longer. 
I’ve definitely gotten very attached to her.
It’s one of the reasons I haven’t gotten a jumping spider even though I love them. Their lifespans are just too short. I can’t bring myself to knowingly sign up for that sort of heartbreak.
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Well of course! Because she is a beautiful little red lava lady and she wants her food just the way she expects it!
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Oh I think I might have shed a few tears myself when Tala passed away. Considering her short history with you she was a heartbreaker. But then I remember all the new life that you helped her create so she lives on and on……
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Short life spans are one of the reasons I haven’t ventured into true spiders. Even though I desperately want a bunch!
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Yeah, that’s why the only true spiders I’ve kept are spiders I’ve “rescued” from work. And one of the reasons I picked the Grammostola genus for one of my first Ts was their long lifespan, so even if I got a male, I’d still be likely to have it with me a good long while.
Of course, things can still happen, just because an animal has a long potential lifespan doesn’t mean the individual(s) you end up with will live that long. But it’s really rough when your best case scenario is having them under 3 years. That’s why I had to stop keeping pet rats; even though they’re amazing animals to keep, my heart just couldn’t take their short lifespans anymore. Even though spiders are nowhere near as personable, I still get very attached to them, and definitely prefer to keep species with reasonably long “best case scenarios.”
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You’re so sweet. 
The experience with Tala was definitely bittersweet, but totally worth it.
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I had a pair of blue rats that I bought from someone I worked with and they were so sweet. But as rats do, they started to develop cysts/tumors as they grew older and they both died within a few weeks apart from each other. I was so sad.
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I had many rats, first as a kid, then again as a young adult. Actually rats and their tragically short lifespans are ultimately how I got my first reptile. When I was about 12, all three of my rats died within a period of a week or two. My parents felt so bad for me that they finally got me the bearded dragon I’d been begging for.
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So…remember when we established that Avicularia don’t burrow as slings? Guess whose Avic sling has decided to burrow. 
I’ll try to get a picture when I get home, but she’s dug out a burrow in the back corner and then built this loooong web tunnel that goes from the burrow to almost the top of the enclosure. She actually retreats into the burrow when she gets startled.
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Oh that sounds pretty cool actually! 
Sounds like she has a mind of her own! 
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Ok here is the P Rifalata still in the container I got him in. I am going to attempt to move him into an arboreal enclosure.
Edit to add: Stay Tuned!
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He looks like a sassy one! Good luck!
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Awesome, @caron! Super excited for you, the sling looks great! How big?
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Here’s some pictures of what my weirdo Avic has constructed. It’s hard to see, but the burrow actually goes down to almost the floor of the enclosure.
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It’s probably maybe the size of a quarter leg span? Tyler said this size would sell for 70.00 so it is a smidge larger than a spiderling……But I was surprised that it didn’t try to bolt at all. I just pushed it pretty much out of the deli cup it was in with the end of an ink pen and then turned the cup upside down in the enclosure and it just crawled out
I just checked on it and I can barely see it buried in the moss…. Arboreal? Hmmmn!
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I mean, my arboreal seems to have decided she’s semi-fossorial, so…
There are also quite a few arboreal tarantulas who will be more terrestrial/fossorial as slings, though I don’t know if Poecilotheria are known to do that.
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Yes my P Rafilata has disappeared as well. I was afraid it had gotten out but then I saw where slings will burrow at first to protect themselves. It actually makes a lot of sense…… I put a small cricket in a few days ago and I don’t see it anywhere so I hope it’s good news……
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Update on my P Rafilata. I started to feel anxious about my P Rafilata so last night I did some snooping in the enclosure. I poked around in the substrate and the moss but nothing. So I removed the piece of cork bark and looked into the little crevices with a flashlight but I didn’t see anything.
Finally I turned the cork bark upside down and there it was wedged in a crevice in the bottom of the bark. So very carefully I put the cork bark back in the way it was and closed up the enclosure, thankful that I had found the little one! Whew!
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