Raptor Rambles

Hi there! I'm a Creature-Crafter, pet parent, perpetually sleepy, and always dabbling in different projects!

[karallite]

A new housemate

!!! WARNING!!!

Spider talk and images lurk beneath the cut! If you are arachnophobic, please skip this post!

So, for a while I've had the occasional encounter of a lost little jumping spider wandering into my apartment when the weather finally warms up, and I always worry about their safety around the cats - not to mention being able to find any kind of food to boot... For the last few months I've been on-and-off researching different ways to build jumping spider vivariums on a budget, even going so far as to chopping up a clear shoe bin to see how well that theory works (Hint - it doesn't ... not easily at risk of snapping brittle plastic), before settling on a building method tutorial I liked enough to adapt and order the parts to make the viv with. Here's something to know about my state and its local jumpers... The biggest one clocks in at 14 mm in the females, and held by the Bold Jumper species. Everyone else? Sit somewhere between 5-9 mm on average between both genders. Little goobers. So.. surprise surprise, the day before my material is supposed to arrive, who shows up above my door frame when I came home from work, but this little dude -

I'm not sure if he's fully grown, as that's my pinky nail next to him, but the pedipalps being a bit thicker on the end lead me to think this lad may be a boy jumper. Still.. I'm pretty sure he won't say no to a fruit fly or two tomorrow when I make a side-tour to the pet store during lunch. So.. with no materials immediately available, and only an acrylic scoring tool on hand, I scrounged up an unlikely material from a project long abandoned from when I had leopard geckos in the form of anti-glare photo frame covers.

From there I took a leaf out of LostinExotics Youtube tutorial for his vivs to adapt one for the little lad utilizing some neodymium magnets from my sculpture supply, a good amount of hot glue seal, some coconut coir from my barley grass growing supplies (my cats are little cows when it comes to their salad time), holes drilled with some micro bits I had for my dremel, and a few silk plants -

It ain't pretty by a long shot, and sure I can't see the spider in there, but it's adapted with two lips inside so if he hammocks at the top I can still open the door flap without breaking it on accident, and keeps the substrate in one place without giving up full access to the entire tank -

Technically.. I could have made a little 3x3x4 viv for his temporary housing, but considering how super active little Zebra Jumpers like this lad was.. it felt better to give him a 5x5x7.5 space instead to zoom around in. Not being able to observe him exploring and thinking with his little pedipalps wiggling away will be worth giving him space to be comfortable until his final home is made. ... Now I need to think of a name for him... I still am keeping my eye out for the bold jumpers, but I had thought about starting up a hobby with borrowing a feral pair for a season to start up brood lines for these little guys as a domestic supply, then release the parents once the slings are up and out. However.. as I've researched more into them, these little guys are truly more on the ornamental side, and not of a size for interaction like the bolds and regals (of which I may look into adopting from a good breeder at some point for a chance to experience what that is like). Thinking... Zed for this guy's name perhaps?

[karallite]

Over the weekend I was chaperoning at a local convention, and figured I should test out my updated dice list for generating random dragons to design as a possible mystery design series for commissions. The design itself ended up setting it as a contender sample for the Handkiller tier of the four complexity tiers I'm planning for the series. The results that led to this creature was - Winged Serpent with an Aerial lifestyle, no creature influence, that lives in Aquatic (Freshwater) biomes with the element of Fungi. This led me to choose a not-quite fully aquatic beast that thrived more in marshy swampland with its adornment of tree and ground fungi to blend into its environment as an ambush predator - using its stumpy wings to heft itself up into trees and blend in before dropping down on their chosen prey to deal a devastating bite with its massive teeth.

My dice seem to be rather fond of serpents and fungi…

[karallite]

Last year I was dabbling with creating a series of dice-lists to generate mystery dragons as a challenge. This fellow was drawn partially at an airport, partially on a plane, and finished at my family's place while I was visiting. Written transcript - "Nobody is quite sure why the Twin-Tailed Screamer has a reputation for claiming old storage tanks as part of its territory. Perhaps they use them as nesting grounds?"

[karallite]

Realized I've let this account gather dust longer than I planned, so let's fix that! Starting things off with a pair of trial badges I've made for samples to use when I open up commissions for them. These would probably be my standard type of badge from the three variants I plan to open with - the other two being headshot and fullbodies. All of my badges would come with the ability to pick either borderless as seen on Olani, or with a border as seen on Ghilli. I've got a few other test/sample drafts prepped or started, and they'll be posted as soon as they're ready too before I compile the final commission form for these!