MY PETS

I have always been an animal lover. I had a dog most of my life growing up (first a golden retriever, and then a lab mix), and my parents always wanted my brother and I to watch nature shows. My dad is an avid outdoorsman and fisherman, and my mom and her mother used to catch insects and spiders for me. I was always the kid who was trying to catch things and my parents encouraged my interest, even when I came home with a pillowcase of garter snakes (well, only two) one day when I was 11. I attempted but didn't have much luck with fish and frogs, and my brother had a toad (I say it belonged to him so I don't have to feel guilty about when it died of dehydration, but hey, we were young and forgetful). We have also had anoles (one of which got eaten by the toad) and an iguana for awhile, not to mention my varies kinds of insects, spiders, and other arthropods. Oh, and some failed attempts at keeping things like slugs. This is a list of the animals that I currently own. Click on a link to go to the animal.

~~~Mammals~~~
Dog (Canis familiaris)
Guinea Pig (Cavia porcellus)

~~~Arachnids~~~
Pinktoe Tarantula (Avicularia avicularia)
Chilean Rose (Rose Hair) Tarantula (Grammostola rosea)
Mexican Redknee Tarantula (Euathlus smithi)
Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator)
Flat Rock Scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes)

~~~Millipedes~~~
African Giant Millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas)

~~~Insects~~~
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)
The "Leps" (Butterflies and Moths)

Chessie is my nice sweet doggie. She is a Lab/ Chesapeake Bay retriever mix. My family got her when she was one year old from the Humane Society in Jan. 1990. So she's pretty old now. She lives at my parents' house so I don't see her much these days, since I don't live there anymore. She is a good, smart dog.

1998	1999	3/25/01
3/25/01

Oreo and Saturn are the two guinea pigs that I sort of inherited. I work in the entomology department at my school, the U of Minnesota, and the person I work for has guinea pigs in her office that are always having babies. One of my former professors took two of the female babies which were born in May. I sort of ended up taking care of them. I am not allowed to have them where I live, so they stay at work and I stop by every time I am there to see them. Oreo is black and white and Saturn, named for my favorite family of moths (Saturniidae), is kind of a brownish color with a little cream. Even though they are sisters from the same litter, Saturn is a lot bigger. They have gotten very friendly and used to people since we have had them at work. I was not too familiar with guinea pigs before, but now I have grown fond of them.

Litee (pronounced "lie-tee") is a Pinktoe Tarantula. I got him in Dec. 2000. He was only like 2.5 inches or something like that when I got him. He molted in Feb. 2001 and after he molted I could tell he was a male. Before that I didn't know. I saved his shed skin but it got broken into a bunch of little pieces. Oh well. "Kun" means boy-type in Japanese which is why I put that after his name. I got the idea from an anime series, hehe. His is bigger than he was when I got him, but he is still just a little guy, barely reaching 3.5 inches from the tips of his front legs to the tips of his back. This is to be expected, since male spiders don't get nearly as large as their female counterparts. Litee is very friendly, docile, well-mannered, and non-threatening. In fact, he is probably the tamest tarantula I have ever met, but he can move very fast if startled or when being handled. He is an arboreal tarantula which means in the wild he would live in trees. I have his cage tipped on the side and set up so he can climb. He climbs the vertical lid to his cage and likes to hang out on his piece of corkbark. He is the coolest spider I have ever met. He can also jump. One time he surprised me when I was holding him. I was sitting there looking at him and all of the sudden he jumped onto my face! He eats crickets, as do all my arachnids.

2/26/01
3/25/01
	3/25/01

Rosie is a Chilean Rose Tarantula. I got him on March 21st, 2001. It's hard to see in the pictures, but he is light brown with pink, and very pretty. Unlike Litee Kun, he is a terrestrial (land-dwelling) species. He is bigger than Litee. When I first got him, I thought he was a female, but since then, he has molted twice. His most recent molt to a mature male was on Jan. 25th, 2002. Mature males can be recognized by the tibal spurs on their front legs and by the enlarged pedipalps. Although he is generally calm and doesn't bite, he does not enjoy being handled and he will flick urticating (itchy) hairs at me just about anytime I have him out of his cage for too long. This is a common defense mechanism in New World tarantula species. Because he is not fond of handling and usually sits inside his flower pot all the time, I have found it nearly impossible to get an accurate measure of his size, but his full leg-span is about 5 inches long and 4 inches wide. He eats crickets like my other arachnids.

3/21/01
3/25/01
3/25/01	3/6/02	Tibal spur	Pedipalps

Seven is a Mexican Redknee Tarantula (formerly known as the Mexican Redleg and also known under the genus Brachypelma). I got her from a friend of my mom's in Feb. 2002. I guess I don't have a lot to say as of yet since I am still getting to know her. So far, she has been quite tame and calm, more so than my other spiders (especially Rosie). She lets me handle her without trying to run away. She is about 3 or 4 years old, and she is probably going to molt again soon, according to her previous owner. She is about the size of Rosie but a lot fatter, as is typical of female spiders. She got her name because at some point in her life, with her previous owner, she had seven legs. The missing one has grown back since then.

3/6/02

Close up	Fangs!

I have 3 Emperor Scorpions: Ceika, Tarrie, and Pandina. Spike, my first, dropped dead one day in Dec. 2001 but I am leaving all the info about him here.

I got Spike in Dec. 2000 the same day as I got Litee. He is 6 inches long when stretched from tail to claws. Despite popular beliefs, not all scorpions are deadly. All scorpions are venomous and some are very dangerous, but the emperor scorpion is only dangerous to people who are allergic to its venom, the same as how only some people are allergic to bee and wasp stings. For most people this species is harmless. It is one of the safest species of scorpions because it has a mild venom, it is fairly docile, and it hardly ever stings. Spike is a pretty tame scorpion, as far as scorpions go. He lets me handle him and pet him, and he will readily eat crickets right out of my hand. When I take him out he usually moves quickly and goes around looking for a place to hide. Although he tolerates being handled, he is happiest to stay under the cork bark in his cage, where he hides all day long. Recently I added a shoe, just for fun, which he also enjoys. Once in a while he comes out at night as he is nocturnal, but he is usually content to do nothing. One cool thing about him is that he glows bright green under a black light. I tried to get a picture of it but it didn't turn out too well . . . he is a lot brighter than the picture portrays. All of my scorpions glow as Spike does. Following are pictures of my Spikey Spike, may his soul rest in peace. I am going to riker mount him.

2/26/01
Blacklight	3/25/01
3/25/01		Just chillin'.... (4/01)

Pandina is my little baby. I just got her over the summer (2001) and she is only an inch long. For 10 bucks, I couldn't resist such a sweet little thing! I don't take her out (except for the pictures), since she is still a fragile baby. She eats tiny "pinhead" crickets. She has molted once since I got her, in Feb. 2002.

Pandina shortly after a molt 3/6/02

I got Ceika and Tarrie on Jan. 25th, 2002 to replace Spike, who died in December. They are living together in Spike's old cage and get along fine with each other. Ceika is as tame as Spike, and Tarrie is a bit much more skittish but still docile as far as scorpions go. Ceika is a male a little larger than Spike, reaching about 6.5 inches when fully stretched out, or about 4 inches at rest. Tarrie, a smaller female, is about 3 inches at rest and stretches to about 5.5. Scorpions can be sexed by looking at the pectines. These are sensory organs on the underside of the body that look like features or combs. On males, they are usually longer and have more teeth. Compare the pictures below, which show clearly this difference between the male and female scorpions. Also, when I selected these two from the pet store, there were two big males and all of the females were smaller and fatter.

Ceika 2/21/02	Tarrie 2/21/02	Ceika (L) and Tarrie Note the difference in pectines.

Tarrie (L) and Ceika 3/6/02	Ceika under blacklight 3/6/02	Ceika 3/6/02

SoCo, is a Flat Rock Scorpion. I got her in Sept. 2001. She (I am pretty sure she is a she) is over 7 inches long when stretched from pinchers to tail. She seems tamer than flat rocks are supposed to be, and I can handle her, but she does get a bit snippy sometimes. Flat rock scorpions got their name because they are very flat, which allows them to squeeze into small spaces. This is also not a dangerously venomous species. I think I am going to stick with only the mildly venomous species, such as the flat rock and the emperors.

2/21/02		3/6/02

3/6/02	SoCo under blacklight 3/6/02

Trill and Spiro are African Giant Millipedes. I got Trill in Jan. 2001. She is nine inches long, friendly, and calm. She moves slowly and sleeps curled up in a ball hiding under various objects in his cage. She comes out to eat, and loves to eat bread, fruits, and vegetables, especially cucumber. When she is done eating she goes back to sleeping or just hanging out. She drinks out of a small water dish. It's really cute. Trill has approximately 254 legs with prickly little feet. This is a very interesting and docile pet. Spiro, my second millipede, is only about half the size of Trill. She is friendly but loves to burrow in the moss and stay there out of sight. At the pet store she was listed as the same kind of millipede but under a different scientific name as Trill, and I am wondering if the names are only synonyms of each other. Spiro and Trill live together and get along fine, as millipedes are extremely docile.

Trill on 2/26/01

Trill on 3/25/01

Spiro (top) and Trill	Spiro on 3/10/02

 I have five Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They like to eat bread and veggies and they spend their time hiding under cork bark or other objects in their cages. None of them bite, and all of them can be handled, although I have noticed different personalities. The males have horns behind their heads and the females don't. Penny is my only female. I got her in Oct. 2000 when she was fairly little, and she has grown a lot since then. I consider her my first roach, because I had one before her that died the day after I got it. Despite the "hissing" in the name, I have never heard her hiss. She is the friendliest of the four, and will sit calmly in my hand; however, when she starts to move she can go extremely fast. I got the three males, Kinky, Hissy, and Tosa, in early 2001. I rescued them from the entomology building at my school because their colony had over populated and most of them were going to be killed off. I chose males because I didn't want a million babies if I got a pregnant female. Penny has her own cage to prevent uncontrollable breeding. The males used to share a cage, but Hissy and Kinky fought constantly and I couldn't figure out a way to stop them. After discovering that Hissy had bitten off a piece of Kinky's antenna, I confined him to his own cage as well. Tosa is smaller and the larger males don't have a problem with him, so he and Kinky lived together for a while until the two of them started fighting too. So I put Hissy and Tosa together and Kinky by himself. Not long after that (Dec. 2001) Tosa dropped dead. I wonder if Hissy did anything to him. All of my males hiss when I handle them, and sometimes I hear them hissing in their cage. Tosa was friendlier than the other males but speedy. Kinky was the prettiest and his antennae have little waves in them (hence the name "Kinky"). That is, until they got bitten. He and Hissy are cranky and hate everyone. They always puts up a big fuss, hissing and trying to hang on to whatever they are on when I try to pick them up. Penny, however, will tolerate anything. Penny and Hissy are both about 2.5 inches long, Kinky is about 2.25 and Tosa was about 2 inches. After Tosa died I got two baby roaches from my boss at work. They are adorable little things and they live with Penny for the time being. It's too bad I developed a weird allergy to the roaches and now if I handle them, my hands itch. Weird.

Pictures of Penny:

On my bed	2/26/01
3/19/01: Shortly after a molt		3/25/01

Dinner time?	On my glasses

Pictures of the "boys":

L-R: Tosa, Kinky, Hissy	Close up 2/26/01	Kinky 2/26/01

Tosa eating popcorn (4/01)

I love moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) and I have raised many kinds of these amazing animals. Butterflies that I have raised include monarchs, mourning cloaks, red admirals, question marks, and a few others. Moths that I have raised include cecropias (from the family Saturniidae), manduca sphinx (tobacco hornworm), blind-eyed sphinx, white lined sphinx, forest tent caterpillar, white marked tussock moth, milkweed tussock moth, and some others, some unsuccessfully. My biggest successes are in the butterflies. They are relatively easy to raise. The hardest to raise, I have found, are moths that have to overwinter and moths that spend the whole summer as larvae. I have had problems with the cecropias, but I guess there is always room to learn more. Here is a picture of a female Cecropia moth that hatched in my captivity in late May/ early June 2000:

Copyright © 2001 By Emily Tenczar (Sheena)
Thanks to Betsy for the moth picture and to dad for a bunch of them.
Wallpaper courtesy of THE ARACHNOLOGY HOME PAGE.

These animals scare me!

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