www.PlanetBoris.co.uk - home of Boris(ette)!

The Diaries of Boris(ette), Horace and Maurice

13th June 2005

First pictures for some while. Working down, Boris discovers another way into the flowerpot..Horace is showing off his nice and fresh new markings (he moulted on Thursday 9th June) and Maurice is seen here exploring. This is actually from a few weeks ago - hes also moulted and photo ops are few and far between.

22nd February 2005

Meet the latest addition to my household - Maurice. He's a PinkToe Tarantula. His tank won't arrive for a few days so he'll have to sleep in his travel container, but hes sharing the other side of Horaces tank to keep warm. PinkToes are aboreal, meaning they like to climb and live in the trees. For this reason he will need a different type of tank, with higher sides and things to climb on and build his web in. The other two prefer to live on the ground, digging a burrow or hiding under something, but Maurice will make a webbing structure to live in.

7th February 2005

Just as an update on Horace, hes looking good if a little shrivelled - he'll be fine once hes had some food but he can't eat just yet - his new fangs are too soft. I'll try something tomorrow. Boris took a little longer (a week) but Horace was ready to eat pretty quickly last time. He's spent today stretching his legs, was quite odd to see - he looked like roadkill. Heres a picture of Horace in his new skin and also one of Boris incase she feels left out. The Horace one is also available in a large wallpaper sized version here

5th February 2005

Yet more moulting action! Horace this time, 2nd time since I've had him, the last time was only 6 weeks ago! I think it was around 20th Dec but I lost that page when I archived 2004 :( Anyway, this time I noticed him on his back at around midnight on the 5th (Its the 6th as I write this now). With the last two moults I couldn't stick around as I was either at work, or needing to get up for work the next day. Being as considerate as usual Horace booked the weekend this time, so I got to see it all, and photograph it all. I had been dropping crickets in his tank for the last week and assuming he was eating them, but I found 3 in there with him while he was on his back - they must have been hiding in there. One was particularly interested in Horace, and he had to flap his legs about a bit to get them to move (upside down at this point and past the point of no return) Anyway I managed to get them all out of the tank and he was ready to go for it. Not much movement for quite a while after that - just the odd twitch. Then, about an hour later I look up and see the most bizarre thing ever. There are quite a few pictures there of the legs being pulled through but I can't describe what it was like to see in motion. Again, glad its not a human requirement to climb out of your skin. He's draggging the skin around with him at the moment (although to be honest he hasn't moved far so he may not have dragged it very much) - I'm just hoping hes fully seperated from it ok. He looks quite a bit bigger. With each moult I would guess hes grown by about 50% - hes definitely at least twice the size he was when I first got him :)

19th January 2005

REALLY exciting stuff last night/ this morning - at about 1am I noticed Boris was on her back with her legs sticking up (first pic) - this happens when they moult - I was expecting this for the last 6 weeks since she hasn't been eating and has developed some baldspots as I showed in the last update. About 1.5 hours later she was out of the old skin and starting to flex her legs, still on her back. Another 2 hours and she was right side up. She was a little weak and still needs to stretch her new legs, but the colouration is amazing as you can see in picture 3. I recovered the skin and was suprised how long the fangs are - about 8mm I'm guessing - bit hard to see on here as its quite dark. She can't eat anything yet - her new fangs are too soft (and I'm pretty much out of crickets too - she hasn't eaten any for about 6 weeks or more) but she should be ready by the weekend. Phew - exciting stuff - I missed it all with Horace - just came back to find he'd done it all while I was at work. Boris was fairly slow and uninterested in anything else up to now - she may be a bit more fun to watch now too hopefully. I'm glad we humans don't have to go through that!

10th January 2005

Another year, another diary. I'll put a link to the archives up, but having all the images since the beginning will make the page really slow to load. Here you can see Boris is looking like she is getting ready to moult - pattern baldness is not limited to males it would seem :)

I quite like the second one so I made a nice big (wallpaper) sized version which can be found here As usual Horace isn't up to much - think I may have neglected him slightly the last two days - his water dish was empty and I found him trying to climb the wall - he should be fine now - the white object in there is a coke bottle cap, but hes also got a bigger dish which you can't see. Its quite shallow (so he can reach over and find the water while not drowning himself if he falls in) so it tends to evaporate fairly fast. What you can't see is he is quite happy - munching on a cricket :) Those funny dark patches are drops of water which I spilt as I put the bottle cap in. Both the size of the cap and the droplet should show Horace is still reeeeaaallly small (and cute!)

13th June 2005
	First pictures for some while. Working down, Boris discovers another way into the flowerpot..Horace is showing off his nice and fresh new markings (he moulted on Thursday 9th June) and Maurice is seen here exploring. This is actually from a few weeks ago - hes also moulted and photo ops are few and far between.
22nd February 2005
	Meet the latest addition to my household - Maurice. He's a PinkToe Tarantula. His tank won't arrive for a few days so he'll have to sleep in his travel container, but hes sharing the other side of Horaces tank to keep warm. PinkToes are aboreal, meaning they like to climb and live in the trees. For this reason he will need a different type of tank, with higher sides and things to climb on and build his web in. The other two prefer to live on the ground, digging a burrow or hiding under something, but Maurice will make a webbing structure to live in.
7th February 2005
	Just as an update on Horace, hes looking good if a little shrivelled - he'll be fine once hes had some food but he can't eat just yet - his new fangs are too soft. I'll try something tomorrow. Boris took a little longer (a week) but Horace was ready to eat pretty quickly last time. He's spent today stretching his legs, was quite odd to see - he looked like roadkill. Heres a picture of Horace in his new skin and also one of Boris incase she feels left out. The Horace one is also available in a large wallpaper sized version here

5th February 2005
	Yet more moulting action! Horace this time, 2nd time since I've had him, the last time was only 6 weeks ago! I think it was around 20th Dec but I lost that page when I archived 2004 :( Anyway, this time I noticed him on his back at around midnight on the 5th (Its the 6th as I write this now). With the last two moults I couldn't stick around as I was either at work, or needing to get up for work the next day. Being as considerate as usual Horace booked the weekend this time, so I got to see it all, and photograph it all. I had been dropping crickets in his tank for the last week and assuming he was eating them, but I found 3 in there with him while he was on his back - they must have been hiding in there. One was particularly interested in Horace, and he had to flap his legs about a bit to get them to move (upside down at this point and past the point of no return) Anyway I managed to get them all out of the tank and he was ready to go for it. Not much movement for quite a while after that - just the odd twitch. Then, about an hour later I look up and see the most bizarre thing ever. There are quite a few pictures there of the legs being pulled through but I can't describe what it was like to see in motion. Again, glad its not a human requirement to climb out of your skin. He's draggging the skin around with him at the moment (although to be honest he hasn't moved far so he may not have dragged it very much) - I'm just hoping hes fully seperated from it ok. He looks quite a bit bigger. With each moult I would guess hes grown by about 50% - hes definitely at least twice the size he was when I first got him :)

19th January 2005
	REALLY exciting stuff last night/ this morning - at about 1am I noticed Boris was on her back with her legs sticking up (first pic) - this happens when they moult - I was expecting this for the last 6 weeks since she hasn't been eating and has developed some baldspots as I showed in the last update. About 1.5 hours later she was out of the old skin and starting to flex her legs, still on her back. Another 2 hours and she was right side up. She was a little weak and still needs to stretch her new legs, but the colouration is amazing as you can see in picture 3. I recovered the skin and was suprised how long the fangs are - about 8mm I'm guessing - bit hard to see on here as its quite dark. She can't eat anything yet - her new fangs are too soft (and I'm pretty much out of crickets too - she hasn't eaten any for about 6 weeks or more) but she should be ready by the weekend. Phew - exciting stuff - I missed it all with Horace - just came back to find he'd done it all while I was at work. Boris was fairly slow and uninterested in anything else up to now - she may be a bit more fun to watch now too hopefully. I'm glad we humans don't have to go through that!
10th January 2005
	Another year, another diary. I'll put a link to the archives up, but having all the images since the beginning will make the page really slow to load. Here you can see Boris is looking like she is getting ready to moult - pattern baldness is not limited to males it would seem :) I quite like the second one so I made a nice big (wallpaper) sized version which can be found here As usual Horace isn't up to much - think I may have neglected him slightly the last two days - his water dish was empty and I found him trying to climb the wall - he should be fine now - the white object in there is a coke bottle cap, but hes also got a bigger dish which you can't see. Its quite shallow (so he can reach over and find the water while not drowning himself if he falls in) so it tends to evaporate fairly fast. What you can't see is he is quite happy - munching on a cricket :) Those funny dark patches are drops of water which I spilt as I put the bottle cap in. Both the size of the cap and the droplet should show Horace is still reeeeaaallly small (and cute!)

Old Diaries: 2004