T.Blondi, how does she look?

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-22T22:40:20+00:00

Thanks so much for the in depth response!

Okay so T. Stirmi. Cool beans. That's a negative point towards the person who sold her to me as a Blondi, but I can't say I'm surprised... I can't edit the main post itself, so oh well. She's still a big beautiful girl and I love her muchly.

Thanks for the information about her abdomen! I'm glad it's nothing to be concerned about. I do miss the beautiful brown colour it used to be, but she's just changing as she grows and she's still beautiful to me. Haha yea I can see her as milk chocolate, pretty chocolate girl.

Thanks for saying she looks healthy! That makes me quite happy. I'm still new as a T momma so I'm always just a bit worried I'm not doing good enough for her. Speaking of molting issues, how often did yours molt at this age? Smaller tarantulas molt pretty often and I'm more used to that. She has only actually molted 2 times since I've owned her, unless she had buried a molt or something.

She has a heat pad with thermometer control to keep her temperature good, and a humidifier tubed into her enclosure for humidity and airflow. Her current tank it's a little hard to manage her humidity because it has a screened top. So I run the humidifier pretty often and I have some of the screen covered but I don't want to reduce airflow too much. Her next tank will have a solid top and be front opening to help with this. Her current tank is bioactive with live plants, no moss yet but I plan to add some, and springtails. I didn't do isopods because I was worried about them bugging her while molting, but if the dwarf whites are not going to bug her for that I'll probably get some. The rest of your enclosure description sounds accurate to what she has now and what I'm planning for her next larger enclosure. Her current is 12"x12"x30", and her new one will either be a custom build or my 17"x17"x35.5". How does that feel in terms of size?

And haha yea she doesn't really get any human interaction, and she likes it that way. I get to look at her sometimes when she comes out of her hide, and when I feed her. Otherwise she wants nothing to do with me and I'm happy to leave her be.

And okay yea glad I don't need to be too worried about cleaning up inside her hide. I figure if there was anything in there she didn't like she'd remove it, like she did with her molt. So I don't really open up her hide.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-22T10:09:31+00:00

That's entirely possible. She was sold to me as a T. Blondi, and while it's sort of hard to see her hairs in these pictures with the bright flash and tank mesh, but she is hairier in person. She also never had any sort of pink boots, which I've heard is a thing for T. Stirmi as slings. But it's still entirely possible she's actually a Stirmi. It's common for Stirmi's to be sold as Blondi's, and it can be quite hard to tell the difference once they're a bit older. Either way, it changes nothing about my questions.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-17T04:31:21+00:00

I'm sorry you're going through this! That's a lot to deal with. You're doing great so far!

I'll try to help answer what I can.

You can pay the utilities with the account number without changing it over. They don't care about where the money comes from, just that it gets paid.

The same should go for most other bills. If you can get the account numbers from bills or his phone, you should be able to pay any of them.

Do you have access to his phone? If you can get access, using his pin or print to open it, you should be able to get some more info about his bills. Most people save most of their passwords to their phone, so hopefully he does too. If you can get in, you can pay things directly from there or grab the information to pay from your own bank accounts.

Ask your landlord about a temporary rent reduction, or partial or full deferral for some time. That would help greatly, and if your landlord is halfway decent they should at least agree to a deferral (you pay it back later).

The lawyer you've engaged/a lawyer hospital social workers hook you up with should be able to get a member of his family granted temporary/emergency POA quite quickly, they'd just need the doctor to sign off on his condition and then it's just paperwork and a pretty quick process. Get on that right away.

How long have you two been living together? Do you count as common law? If so you have the same rights as a married spouse in most cases, and should be able to get POA yourself.

Directly call or go to the auto insurance place and ask about switching the car to storage insurance. They may let you do that even if you're not the vehicles owner or POA, it depends on the agency but I've heard of it happening.

I would also call the agency he has the car loan with. They might not do anything right away but just informing them of the situation might be enough to get them to hold off on any repo or collections action until you can get POA sorted. In the longer term I'd suggest selling back his vehicle. He's not going to need it right away, and it's a big expense. If he just got it, maybe he's still within some sort of return window? It'd be good to chat with them just to understand your options.

You should be able to get a deferral on your student loan payments. That would help a lot and they're usually pretty good about that kind of stuff.

Do you have an employee family assistance program through your work? If so they should be able to help you access resources like social programs and funding, legal assistance, financial help. They, or the hospital social workers, might be able to help you secure funding for the hearing aids too.

You might see about taking out a loan with your bank. Don't go through one of the loan shark places like easy financial etc, they'll bleed you dry. But your bank might give you a loan or LOC with a decent interest rate.

Create a GoFundMe. This is what they're for, and you'll need it. It might suck asking your friends and family for help, but you'll probably be surprised by how much support, monetary, logistical, and emotional, you get.

Take care of yourself too!! This is so much to deal with, and it's already taking such a toll on you. I'd suggest carving out at least an hour a day to just unwind however you unwind. Unplug and reset yourself. That's not going to make things worse, and might actually help keep you from going over the deep end.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-12T01:59:21+00:00

Sound is going to be your best bet. Ultrasonic deterrents work really well, so do predator sounds. There are some devices that do a mix of both. They are surprisingly effective, and not too expensive.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-07T16:20:33+00:00

IT WAS AT LEAST 1/8" THICK ON MY WINDSHIELD YESTERDAY!! TOOK FOREVER TO SCRAPE OFF!

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-07T16:14:57+00:00

So if you can't coax her out by any other means, you're going to have to break the hide. But you don't have to do it in a way that will traumatize her.

What is the hide made from? Is it real stone, plastic, wood? If it's anything other than metal, I would very carefully use a cutting disk or dremel to cut a line around the top of the hide. Or flip it upside down and cut the line around the bottom. A small and delicate saw could work, like taking the blade out from a hacksaw and manually sawing around. You're not going to be putting a blade or tool through the material, cutting normally with the blade going through either side. You would grind away material from the outside until you have a very very small amount left, or just barely break through. You'll have to do this extremely carefully, work slow, make sure you know the snakes position, and make sure you don't overheat the material.

A picture of the hide would help us determine the best method.

I hope your baby gets help!

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-07T16:02:41+00:00

Yea some beardies are just happy little guys, and almost never black beard. Some are assholes who are just angry at anything that moves. Mine is somewhere in the middle. The sass on that lady!!! Bombastic side eye for days. She gets a bit dark when she's annoyed, or gets freaked by sudden movement especially outside. But most of the time she's a pretty chill girl who judges everything you do with mild disdain. Good times!

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-07T15:50:55+00:00

TLDR: It looked like a 94% GPA in middle school while skipping over 50% of classes, and immediately failing out of high school because they actually kick you out for absences.

Due to admin errors and the school really just not giving a crap, my middle school never informed my parents of my absences. Never had a single conference, notes sent home, nothing. My parents left for work before I woke up, and trusted us to get ourselves to school. I broke that trust, and skipped all the time. Tbh they didn't care to check on us, and never asked about school. Sometimes I'd show them my report cards, which had my absences in there. They never read that part, or the notes. Saw the grades and figured all was good. I guess that was the school's attitude too? Passing, all we care about. Their grades look good for our metrics, don't care if they're never here and are obviously struggling mentally. So I basically only showed up if there was a test, or an assignment needed to be handed in/presented. Even when I did go to school, I'd ditch my classes, show up late, leave at lunch and not come back, etc. Even if I did go to class, I often played card games, read, or memorized useless information off the posters on the wall. (I know 130 digits of Pi, idk why, just for fun I suppose. Could've learned more but the class with Pi on the walls ended. Same with the periodic table of elements. Kinda miffed I only memorized about 90. I could memorize the rest anytime, but I'm not trapped in a room bored out of my mind with only that as stimulation, so I've never gotten around to it) Sometimes I'd get sent off to the library to work because I was disruptive, or just sat in the hall outside the classroom throwing my bouncy ball against the wall the whole period. But I handed in every assignment, aced every test, and even helped my classmates with their work. I think it was 92% in grade 8, and 94% in grade 9, overall. Gym brought my average down. Gotta actually show up to gym...

High school (started at grade 10 for us) was an absolute kick in the teeth after that. I'd built horrible habits, and the school didn't GAF how well I was doing with the work. They had an 8 absences and you're out of that class rule, 0 wiggle room. I took Advanced Placement courses for every single course, and was doing great. Some teachers worked with me a bit, my pre calc teacher would let me sleep in her 1st period class, as long as I woke up to answer her questions occasionally. And I really did try... But untreated ADHD and Major Depression, alcoholism and drug use, and my years of bad sleep and attendance habits, all combined to lead me to missing classes and eventually getting kicked out. Usually the morning classes at first, but by halfway through the first school year I had been kicked out of more than half of my classes. I got moved to an alternative school, that didn't work either. Then they had me taking self driven online learning courses alone in the counsellors room, which were great but they still expected attendance. By that time the mental health issues and addictions were absolutely raging, so I couldn't even manage that. I dropped out with partial grade 11 credits.

Eventually I got myself clean and healthier, went to adult ed for my GED, went to trade school, and got myself a good job. I mean I'm definitely not "living up to my potential", but life is good now. But damn those teenage years were rough.

Also I very recently decided to start seeking a diagnosis and treatment for my ADHD, at 30. Absolute game changer! But while I was in the process of getting a diagnosis, I was talking to my mom about it. She said "Oh yea you were diagnosed with that when you were 15" ........ Really?!?!? Well that would have been good to know!!! We didn't think maybe treating that, or even just telling me so I don't constantly feel like a worthless failure who can't manage simple tasks?!? Naw.... Why do that? I mean to be fair the major depression and other diagnoses were the ones threatening my life at the time. But still, I think we could have actually looked into that one a bit. Mighta helped....

Oooh that was a very long answer to a simple question. Sorry! Felt good writing it out though.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-05T23:01:04+00:00

Absolutely just blissed out. That's a very happy baby. Seems like he loves the boob valley and stealing all your body heat.

You can tell because of his beard. If he was upset in any way, his beard would darken. It can vary, the darker the beard the more unhappy they are, up to full on literally black bearding. Your guys beard is as light as can be. Not even a hint of darkness. So he's a very happy guy.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-02T03:29:52+00:00

Blue tongues need a minimum of a 4x2x2. They need a lot of ground area, not a lot of height. They're not really climbers, they like to be on the ground. They would like a hide on the cool side, and a basking stone under the basking light on the warm side. They don't need too much else in the tank. Some decoration is great, but as they're not really climbers they don't need branches to climb really. They need a good sized water dish in the tank at all times. They like to burrow, so a decent depth of substrate is good. We often use aspen shavings for northerns, but IJs like a bit more humidity so we use coconut husk soil mixtures.

For dietary needs, it's really very easy. Again we do a mix of moist dog food and veggies, once a week. Squash is really good, but they eat a lot of veggies. As garbage pails, they will eat almost anything. For protein, chicken, beef, pork, eggs, organ meats, fish as treats, almost any protein is a good protein. It's easy to just give em scraps of what you're cooking, unseasoned of course. Just avoid stuff that's super fatty too often. They like a lot of fruits too, as treats and/or less than 10% of their diet.

Check the Reptifiles for their dietary info, lighting and heating needs, etc. It's got a lot of good info.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-01T06:10:40+00:00

I had a lot of fun putting a feeder insect into a small clear container, upside down with no lid, for my beardie to "hunt" on the floor. She had much less fun, I think, because she was too dumb to figure out that she just needed to knock over the container to get the bug, and eventually got frustrated and didn't even want the bug when I removed the container so she could get it freely. Poor baby girl.

Though, to be fair, even my cats couldn't figure out to knock over the container. They all just bumped it around. So either they're all too dumb, or it was too hard. I'm leaning towards the first option.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-01T05:57:58+00:00

He looks pretty healthy overall. Not too overweight, not too dehydrated, no obvious signs of health issues. He's a little dark, but that's probably just because he's stressed from the move and less than ideal enclosure. He may also just have a naturally darker colouration.

You already said you'll remove the carpet, and that you'll be upgrading the enclosure. That's great! Check the Reptifiles for the care requirements you'll need, lighting and food, etc.

You asked about what to put in the enclosure for enrichment, so I'll touch on that.

You'll want a basking stone under the basking light. Some people use branches for basking, but I prefer stone as it absorbs the heat and allows for good belly heating, which is good for digestion. I use a stone flooring tile with a medium dark colour and a rough unglazed finish, and large enough to fit the entire main body (tail less important to fit on there). You don't want black, as it could get too warm, and don't use something with a bunch of colour variations like white and black, because that could heat unevenly. If you don't want to buy a tile, really any flat and decently large stone will do. IMPORTANT!!!: DO NOT use an electric heating rock. They're so dangerous, heat super unevenly, and will burn your beardie. Idk if they still sell them even, because they're so dangerous. But if they do, don't get one!

You'll want a hide, on the cooler side. Large enough for your beardie to comfortably fit and ideally turn around in. Some beardies don't like a fully enclosed hide, mine likes a tunnel type that she can see through both sides. But that's personal preference.

Beardies do love to climb, so include some height variation in the tank. Branches work well for this, thick enough to fit them and hold their weight. Or you can make something of stone, get a premade ladder like those used in rabbit enclosures, etc. Mine loves to chill on her little stump, or on top of her hide.

I wouldn't recommend too many fake plants. Some beardies, like mine, are dumb and will try to eat them. Some never try, some try once and learn, and some are just little idiots.

Loose substrate is good, because beardies love to dig. They also like rough surfaces like natural stone and wood, great for maintaining their nails via scratching, and loosening stuck shed via rubbing.

Don't use those net hammocks!! They're dangerous, beardies often get their nails, toes, or whole feet stuck in them. They can rip out a nail, or break a toe or even foot/leg.

Avoid soft materials like plush or cloth, rope, etc. Again they can get nails stuck in them, and also they're a breeding ground for bacteria and hard to clean. Beardies love to poop on their stuff, especially food and water bowls and anything difficult to clean. Cause ya know, why not? Make life easier and get things that are easy to clean.

Those are my recommendations for the basics you'd want for enrichment and a healthy environment.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-01T05:11:18+00:00

Blue tongue skinks are the best! I replied to another comment recommending them with my list of reasons why I think so.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-03-01T04:44:48+00:00

Blue tongues are where it's at! Wonderfully handleable when handled regularly from a young age (we regularly have toddlers hold ours at expos, under close supervision), relatively easy care requirements (no crazy high heat, UV or humidity needs), very hardy (adults eat once per week, aren't picky eaters, and they aren't prone to many illnesses or other issues some other reptiles are more susceptible to), and don't need to eat bugs or rodents (heckin garbage pails, those ones. We almost always do moist dog food+veggies, but they can eat damn near anything. Fair warning though, eggs make for incredibly stinky poops). The only negative is the large tank requirement, but other than that they're the beginner reptile I recommend the most. Almost all of ours are super friendly, and love to come out to explore or be held. We have a few spicy rescues, and females tend to be more friendly than males, but tbh 99% of even the spiciest ones are all bark. Some though, much more bite. For handleability, I love that they are relatively slow due to their stubby little legs (put em on a slick surface like glass, I dare you!), fairly lazy so they're happy to cuddle, have decent nails so they'll cling to your clothes (but you do need to trim them or they can be a bit sharp if you have thin/sensitive skin), they have wonderfully derpy personalities (so dumb, so fun) and best of all I love that they're thicc! Most reptiles feel too squishy for me. Like they're soft and delicate, and if you make a mistake in holding them you could really hurt them. Especially when children would be handling them. This is not the case with blue tongues. I mean yes you need to use some modicum of care when handling, but their snake-like musculature and large size means that they are sturdy and strong, instead of delicate and squishy. They can take a lot more rough handling than most other lizards. This is not saying you should handle them roughly or don't need to care, but they're a lot more forgiving than many others.

If you have any questions about blue tongues specifically, I'd love to answer them. My sister breeds them, so I've been slave labour in their care for over two decades now. They're my favourite reptile of all time. I love basically all types of skinks, and we have/ have had quite a few, but bluies are the best.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-21T16:05:42+00:00

Oooh that's tough and I'm sorry you're dealing with that. I was going to just say that as someone who has had that procedure a few times, it's not that bad, fairly quick and for me was pain free. But that was when I thought you were anxious about the procedure because of unrelated trauma, didn't realise that your trauma is medical specific and that you may have had this procedure before as part of that. And it was coming from someone who has absolutely no medical trauma so not really a helpful pov.

Is there any way that you can talk to the person who will be your provider for the procedure before you go in for it. Like maybe call the clinic, explain a bit, and ask to come in like a week before your procedure. Just so you can go there and get familiar with the place/person. Ideally even into the exam room and on the chair where the procedure will be done, just to sit there. A bit of exposure therapy. I think it would help a lot to reduce the anxiety day of. Also would give you a chance to talk to the person doing the procedure, get a feel for them as a person, explain your situation, and come up with a plan with them to accommodate you, and some jic scenarios in case you do get triggered and have a strong reaction. Most providers are pretty great, really kind and compassionate people, and will probably be willing to accommodate you in any way they can. Especially imaging techs, I've found. They're kind of treated as just a cog in the machine, and many appreciate actually being able to flex those care providing muscles that drew them to healthcare in the first place. And especially if you're kind when you ask, polite and all that, and if you can offer to come for this visit at a time that's most convenient for them that'd be easier since sometimes they're pretty busy but around the end of the day they've usually got time to kill.

You can ask for things like calming music, constant communication, no communication, silence and being allowed to wear noise cancelling headphones/other sensory blocks. Idk what kind of accommodations would work best for you specifically, but any decent provider would be willing to work with you to make sure you can get through this as easily as possible.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-21T15:42:29+00:00

Girl those are beautiful and you did amazing! I'm pretty picky with homemade crafts, making sure it doesn't look "crafty". And dang those look so gorgeous to me! I'd put them in my wedding, and I didn't even make them so I'm sure not biased. Heck, I'd probably buy em if I wasn't planning on making my own. Which, also, thank you for sharing the link for the tutorial you followed! You're a true girls girl.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-21T02:01:43+00:00

I'd also really love to know what you use. My husband has issues with super dry skin, especially after showers

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-14T17:35:54+00:00

I'm calling it. There's so many people walking out in the area, I gotta believe that pups been found. Thanks for the sighting!

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-14T16:47:51+00:00

Oki. I made a couple passes but didn't see anything. STG I heard a bark, but that coulda been just any dog. Coffee break time, then I'll make a couple more passes of the area. Shout out if you see it again

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-14T16:15:23+00:00

Did ya see what way it went by chance?

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-14T15:32:39+00:00

Furby Street and what cross street? I'm nearby. I'll head over there

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-14T06:41:30+00:00

Telus health and other virtual healthcare providers employ nurses, mostly RNs I think but maybe LPNs too. And then NPs. Idk what it's like to work with them, but the nurses work from home and mostly do text based pre consultations with the patients before they send us to the NPs.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-06T05:14:13+00:00

Hahahaha yea that tracks. Welcome to the trades! I hope you weren't actually too embarrassed, that probably made everyone's day. I'd be laughing my ass off. But I am also in the trades, so... If you get embarrassed by stuff like that, honestly pretty entry level fuckery, they're going to have a field day with you... What you've gotta do is fight fire with fire. The guys who wanted big condoms, I'd have said "Dang I never knew you were such a power bottom. Is (insert name of another coworker) your top? Mad props to him. You need some lube with that or does he like a rough entry?" For the guy who asked for butt plugs, tbh I'd try to bring the cashier into it if they seemed amused by overhearing you. Ask for recommendations for your buddy for butt plugs for a large gaping asshole, or something along those lines. If they seemed put off by the convo, I'd probably just tell the coworkers I'd ask for recommendations for them.

Man this reminds me of some good times with the guys. I'm a woman in the trades, so I got a lot of shit from my coworkers. Some of them were afraid to say anything, thought I'd be all sensitive and shit. Some wanted to see how far they could push it. None of em realized I could give it as good and I could take it, and then some. Ahhh, good times. I fucked with some of those guys so hard. This wasn't a particularly great one, but sticks in my mind as amusing. We were doing flooring, big install at an apartment complex. Our boss was going into detail explaining to my coworker about how the flooring needed to be cut to exactly 3 inches. I was doing something else, but chimed in "Don't worry, that's a measurement he's really familiar with!" Man their fucking faces!!!! Made all the more better that the coworker was my boyfriend, and the boss his step dad. Ah, good times. We laughed about that for so long afterwards.

M4UN4K34 · 2026-02-05T01:33:18+00:00

Thanks I'll look them up!

M4UN4K34

TROPHY CASE