Caring for your Widow

Now that you have caught your own Black Widow, you now need to care for it. Its really easy. All you need to do is feed, water, and clean its habitat. Feeding is my favorite part of having a Widow. Its cool to see it catch and bite and kill then eat its prey. I feed Sheelah any insects I can find. Like beetles, grasshoppers, flies, moths, butterflies, and earwigs. But recently I have been feeding her wasps. Its cool to watch her avoid the stinger and it gets rid of wasps which is always a good thing. In the winter time or when I can find any bugs, I buy a cricket at the pet store. Its important to know what insects you can or cant feed them. The main bugs to avoid are, Praying mantas, which are their only natural predator after themselves, and Monarch butterflies. They are poisonous. In the summer I feed my Widow every week to 10 days. In the winter I feed her every 3 to 5 weeks. But you can look at their abdomen to see if they need to be fed. If its swollen, don't feed. If its shrunken, feed. I have had to place her food in her web with long tweezers lately due to the design of her new habitat. But it just makes it more exciting. For watering I just have a empty hair spray bottle that I fill with water. I spray 3 to 5 squirts onto her web every 2 to 3 days. They drink in the wild from the dew that collects on the webs. Its cool to watch her run around and drink them up. For cleaning I just move her to a new habitat. I do this about every 3 months or if I see any major flaws with her current habitat.

 Sheelah catching a wasp.

 Sheelah eating a cricket in her old habitat.

http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-and-Treat-Black-Widow-Spider-Bites