Mastigoproctus giganteus, aka The (giant) Vinegaroon!

Over the weekend, one of my cats cornered this lovely beasty. I’ve been waiting ages to hang out with one and observe it.

So… first off, Pics!

Yes, she is filthy.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think she crawled out from under our dirt floor. Once she was placed in her enclosure, the first thing she did was go for the water and start cleaning herself.

Fastidious much?

I’ve had her for a few days now (and now I haven’t sexed her, so “she” is generic - I’ll figure it out eventually) and have learned a few things observing her.

1) She was hungry!

I gave her two darkling beetles, a couple of mealworms, and a juvie cockroach. What wasn’t eaten immediately didn’t make it through the night. The next day, a cricket, two more darkling beetles, and a few more mealworms. I saw a mealworm this morning, so I think she’s finally slowing down.

2) She is a messy eater!

Or maybe she is just picky. She leaves the legs and sometimes bits of the carapace. Can’t imagine they are very scrumptious.

3) She is curious!

Every time I add something to the enclosure (need to do some serious research to see what other people have done), she comes and investigates. Which leads me to believe she will require much more enrichment than my black-headed snake, which seems to prefer hanging out in the dirt. (Although I just looked over, and he is investigating his enclosure and curious about the big blob outside of it, making a liar out of me. Just how well do snakes see at a distance?)

Life can be boring in an enclosure; just ask the rats in the heroin study. So, if I’m going to hold on to her for a bit, I need to make it interesting.

I’ll keep dropping in more info and pics.