So, you want to keep a pet tarantula?

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Originally posted by sik
I changed my mind about getting an Emilia, this looks better to me!

Do you know if they're good with beginners?
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The White Knee can be a bit tetchy - but if you aren't going to want to hold it then you won't notice any difference in aggression levels.
They don't move particularly fast, and will happily sit on the ground and ignore you while you clean dead crickets out or change her water bowl.

I re-housed Pepper today.
She's been looking a bit lost in the massive plastic tank I keep her in, plus I wanted to bring her into the front room with Idi and Mugabe.
I got another of those Leekes fish tanks - it's perfectly sized for her really as it is twice her width and over twice her length (believe it or not, that's all a tarantula really needs to thrive)

Moving her was much easier than the two Baboons, as you can see!

Pepper02


I can keep a much closer eye on the old girl now

Pepper03


And her colours look spectacular under the flourescent light, it really shows off her rose coloured hairs.

Pepper04
 
While i was in town today, i popped into my local pet shop to have a quick peep, cos i know they stock a few Spiders, lizards & snakes etc.

They had 3 Tarantulas in stock.

1 Mexican Red Knee (Brachypelma smithi) & 2 Chilean Rose (Grammostola rosea).

The Red Knee was labelled as a juvenile , but it looked a good few inches in length & was £75! :eek:

I could only see 1 of the C.Rose & it looked the same size as the Red Knee, but was descibed as sub adult? That was a lot cheaper at £19. The other C.Rose was in a tank behind & was £25.

Once again, my GF gave me the 'You buy a spider & you can leave with it' speech. :(

Hmmmmmmm, me thinks i still have my work cut out convincing her that they're a superb hobbie/pet :D
 
That's about the going rate for a nearly adult Red Knee. This is why people buy them as spiderlings (about £15) and raise them to full grown specimins before selling them.
They command a high price due to their hardy nature, docile temperament and beautiful colouring.

Chile Rose are equally good as pets, but cheaper due to them being less colourful and easier to breed. :)

Juvenile and Sub-Adult are basically the same thing.
Spiderling/Juvenile/SubAdult/Adult.

At £75 I'd want it to be a female, not a stroppy male with a year to live. :)

Female Brachypelma can live over 30 years.
 
You can usually tell by examining the old shed skins - but spider sexing is tricky, a bit of a black art really.

When buying a pricey spider you really don't want an adult male.
They are extremely restless, and live only to mate, as many times as possible, before they eventually die about a year later.

What most people do with adult males is "Stud" them out to people with females.
The female owners use the male to breed, and then you split the profits from the 100 or so spiderlings 50/50.

The male often gets killed or at least tagged after the mating process, but seeing as they are basically going to die soon after mating of natural causes it doesn't really matter.

Very good information on breeding loans
 
Originally posted by The Edge
Prolly been asked but i'll ask anyway :)

How often do they need cleaning out? Can u do it without handling the spider?
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I clean any debris (ie half-eaten or dead crickets) out once every week.
I do it by hand, but I wait until the Baboons are both tucked up in their burrows ;) More becuase I don't want them running off and escaping than anything.

If they are alert and stomping about, I leave it for another day.

You can clean a docile spider out by hand while it's alert, they generally ignore you.

If you want you can always use tweezers or long forceps to do it.

As for totally cleaning out the tank, it doesn't really need doing - some people do it every 6 months or anually, but most won't bother with the more aggressive species.

I use the faithful "prod it into a freezer or food bag with a chopstick" method to catch the feisty ones. Once in the bag they huddle up in the corner, and can be put in a temporary container while you wash the tank out and change the substrate.
When your done just put the bag in the clean tank and they should find their own way out, or you can gently prod them until they do a runner.
 
Well I've ordered my Mexican white knee, and she should be arriving around Tuesday. This one is a female, because the breeder has sexed her for me. Reckons she's only got the sex wrong 4 times, and that was with a different (harder to sex) species. She's a juvenille, so will be a bit bigger than Jezabel and will apparently eat like a horse! She'll probably be a little smaller than this one;

ageniculata3.jpg


Can't wait! I'm very excited :D
 
Originally posted by DirtyMinx
Yay!! Another baby spider for me to quiz Lostkat about lol.

They are certainly fascinating creatures.
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There are loads more species I'd like, but unfortunately species choice in Britain is poor compared to mainland Europe andthe States.

Then there's the question of space - when I move out I'm really going to need a taratula room, or at least a very big wall to put all my tanks on.
Looking to double if not treble my collection in the next year. :)

I expect Kate should be on later tonight, I think she got her A.geniculata from an independant breeder.
 
Correct, I am getting my white knee from an independent dealer who was advertising on a 'Wanted' board. She doesn't have a web page. Brazillian white knees are absolutely everywhere at the moment - everyone seems to be breeding them. This means that they are damn cheap (around £4 for a spiderling), which is excellent seeing as they're one of the most stunning species I've seen. The only reason I got mine from this lady is because she had some juvenilles which she could sex and I'd rather pay that little extra for a female juvenille, than risk getting a male and having it die on me a year after it matures.

Whilst I was at the pet shop today, I noticed they had some new T's in stock so I had a peek (seeing as they were all on the counter). I saw another one of my favourite tarantulas, the Costa Rican Zebra (Aphonopelma seemanni). WOW what a beauty! A tropical rainforest species that is apparently a bit mean, but definately one I want. Think I might wait a while before I get that one! They're gorgeous though aren't they;

costa.jpg


They also had a freshly moulted emilia (same as mine) which was also stunning. Emilia's can be a little dull but this one was gorgeous.
 
Well the other day, I was getting a bit bored of Idi and Mugabe being permanently underground.
P. murinus is what's known as an "opportunistic" burrower - if you give it dirt it will dig, so I decided to conduct an experiment.

I moved his log from the tank floor, and propped it up, like a tree trunk.
I wanted to see if he would make a shelter against the corner of the bark, which would look a bit better than a tank full of dirt...

I came back from work to find that he'd made a totally arboreal web!


MugabeWeb03


Mad huh?

Such adaptive creatures.
 
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