My big fuzzy baby.

[Float-Goat]

Good day,

Today i will tell you a little story about my little baby that i "rescued" a while back.
One day my father came to me and told me that he had visited someone with a big bird-eater spider in his kitchen and that he needed to get rid of it because he was moving to another house and didn't want to have the spider anymore.
I was pretty excited when my father told me that i could go pick it up at his house and keep it in my room, so i went to but some crickets at my local pet store and went to get the spider.
When i finally reached the kitchen i noticed a grease covered, unheated small tank on the floor that was absolutely filled with webs and he told me that it was the spider.
I felt kind of bad to see the poor girl is such harsh conditions so i hopped back home and set up my back-up tank i still had from my snakes, when i started digging through the webs i noticed some first movements and there she was bigger than i expected; a nearly full-grown Lasiodora parahybana (Brazilian salmon pink bird-eater).



Now i couldn't help but noticing that she was on the skinny side so i decided to put her in the tank i set up and feed her some crickets, she went berserk over them.
The next day i decided that crickets were a bit small for this giant so i decided to start feeding her Blaptica dubia (Orange spotted cockroach) which she liked even more and soon she started to build up a respectable abdomen.



Now just recently i had a little problem, she wouldn't eat no matter what i gave her, but she had quite a "fat" reserve so i didn't worry too much until a few days ago when it all became clear why she wouldn't eat, how could i not see it coming!



As of today she is very happy, she is HUGE (Leg span of around 20cm) as the L. parahybana (Brazilian salmon pink bird-eater) is around the 3rd biggest species of spiders on the planet and she is very easy to handle.
She has never shown any signs of aggression, so i'm very happy with her.

[fishmommie]

congrats on your spider. I know nothing about them. Including what happened that made her not eat. Can you explain what the transition was and how it affects her? Very interesting.

[FinalJenemba]

As someone who also knows absolutely nothing about spiders im a little confused as well. That kinda looks like a dead spider in the last picture.... Or is that what a shed looks like?

[mommy1]

Very cool spider. I have always wanted a bird eater. As a child we had a Brachypelma smithi (Mexican red knee) and my daughter currently has a Avicularia avicularia (Pink toe). It's always neat to find the molt, and a relief since often things can go wrong. Now that it has molted I am sure she will be hungry again. Good luck with her and congratulations on your new pet.

[Trillianne]

I'm guessing the last photo is a molting?

Your story kind of lacked the obvious part there. I'm sure its obvious to you, and probably to spider people, but not so much to the rest of us non-spider keeping people.

[fishmommie]

I'm guessing the last photo is a molting?

Your story kind of lacked the obvious part there. I'm sure its obvious to you, and probably to spider people, but not so much to the rest of us non-spider keeping people.

thanks. I thought maybe I was the only spider dolt here :o)

[Sandz]

Very nice T. And yes thats a molt.

[~firefly~]

Wow - what a difference between the first and the second picture! Well done - you're obviously caring for her really well. More pics?

[Cyberra]

Spider molts look so freaky

[1Sarah]

It's great that you're taking such good care of her, and what a difference in her size! I also had no idea why she wasn't eating until I read down the thread and saw about molting...NOT a spider person here. Have to say, I'm glad she's yours...and contained.