Well, hello again. I'm not really sure where to start. I found 1 dead spiderling today.

 It was nice and plump.The one I found yesterday that I thought was dying, is definitely dead today. I have been keeping one suspected of dying for at least one day to be sure. So far, none of them have molted. Even though I have read that Lasiodora parahybana grow extremely fast, I am not sure what that means. I have read that the average juvenile tarantula will molt about once a month. I thought that these - being spiderling - might molt more than that. Or, perhaps the "growing fast" means that when they do molt their size increases more than other tarantulas do. I don't know but can't wait to find out. My other three tarantulas, when they molt - being juveniles, fairly double their size. At any rate I will just have to wait and see, and they should be getting close to molting since I got them on August 24th.

   Yesterday was feeding day, and since only 1 baby was hungry enough to eat while I was waiting and watching, I had decided that may be I should start feeding them every two days as opposed to every other day. It had also crossed my mind that perhaps they weren't hungry because they are getting close to molting. Today, I went throught each tarantula's container and removed all the leftovers I could find and discovered that almost all of them had eaten overnight. A few had fed out in the open, but most had dragged their food to the side of the container. I guess they just needed a little candlelight and privacy.

Here is one of the little fatties.

 Their opisthosomas/abdomens are all fat and shiny, which still makes me think that it might not hurt to lengthen the time between feedings so that they aren't so fat. Could they being so well fed be contributing to the deaths - even though there haven't been all that many? I am down to 90 from 106. I have sold two to a gentleman in Texas though. There are a few that are not eating as well as the others and are not nearly as plump,,,which may be to their advantage. One of the smallest has had an odd white patch on its carapace ever since it arrived. I thought it might be a deformaty of some king at first, or perhaps a patch of exuvium that didn't come off in the last molt. Who knows.

Here is a photo of it. I will have to get a close up.