So, you want to keep a pet tarantula?
- Thread starter Lopéz
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Soldato
Nope, a Mexican red leg. Might sound pedantic but they're two different species. She's a Brachypelma emilia.
Close, she's a Mexican red leg.
They have slightly different colouration when compared to red knees.
Soldato
Yeah I expect so Minxy. Probably why they sit around doing absolutely nothing for a week or so before the moult. It's amazing they can actually squeeze themselves into skins so small. She's been galloping around her tank this evening having a stretch. Still can't quite believe how supermassive she is. She's the same size as Rio definately... if not a little larger 
Well, I've been moaned at by Minxy on MSN for not posting enough pictures of my current collection - so, from the top, here's a rundown on how everyone is doing.
Pepper
Pepper is the same as ever. Docile, calm and inactive. I'm currently looking to borrow a male Chile rose to see if she'll mate with him and produce an egg sac.
I've revamped her home with new substrate and a piece of cork bark, and she seems very happy with it
Mugabe
Mugabe is heavily pre-moult. He's extremely defensive, off his food, but still has a swollen abdomen despite not eating. I'm hoping for a shed within the next week or so.
Here he is showing Kate what he does when he gets annoyed:
I'm hoping Mugabe will moult into a mature female by the summer.
Idi Amin
Idi has been feeding voraciously and keeping himself to himself as usual. He comes out to bask at night sometimes, but never for very long. He's growing well - but I think he'll end up a male. If so, he will be studded out in as many breeding programmes as possible.
That was taken just a few minutes ago.
Miguel
Miguel has regained his infamous appetite since his last moult - this is another one I expect to be mature by the summer. At this rate of growth I'll have one seriously big Curly on my hands.
That's him yesterday, feeding on a hapless cricket.
Mazir
Found out some interesting information about my little Indian Violet today
He's getting fat! Already very colourful, the adults are even more spectacular. This one will definitely be bred, be it male or female. They are still rather rare in the hobby.
Pepper
Pepper is the same as ever. Docile, calm and inactive. I'm currently looking to borrow a male Chile rose to see if she'll mate with him and produce an egg sac.
I've revamped her home with new substrate and a piece of cork bark, and she seems very happy with it
Mugabe
Mugabe is heavily pre-moult. He's extremely defensive, off his food, but still has a swollen abdomen despite not eating. I'm hoping for a shed within the next week or so.
Here he is showing Kate what he does when he gets annoyed:
I'm hoping Mugabe will moult into a mature female by the summer.
Idi Amin
Idi has been feeding voraciously and keeping himself to himself as usual. He comes out to bask at night sometimes, but never for very long. He's growing well - but I think he'll end up a male. If so, he will be studded out in as many breeding programmes as possible.
That was taken just a few minutes ago.
Miguel
Miguel has regained his infamous appetite since his last moult - this is another one I expect to be mature by the summer. At this rate of growth I'll have one seriously big Curly on my hands.
That's him yesterday, feeding on a hapless cricket.
Mazir
Found out some interesting information about my little Indian Violet today
Glad I didn't try handling him today now! Saying that, he seems more skittish than aggressive to me. He's another one on a feeding fest - crickets get comprehensively murdered as soon as I drop them into his heavily-webbed tank. He feeds differently to my other tarantulas, preferring to strike repeatedly to kill the cricket, instead of gathering it up at once.
He's getting fat! Already very colourful, the adults are even more spectacular. This one will definitely be bred, be it male or female. They are still rather rare in the hobby.
Guarico
Here's another one who just moulted - Guarico is now a handsome jet black spiderling with flesh coloured markings (these will deepen to orange as he matures)
Guarico is bigger then Pele, but his skittish and secretive nature makes holding him an impossibility for now
Taking pics of him through the glass will be much easier when I get him into a larger tank.
Pele
The seven-legged Pinktoe is eating like a horse. It was being fed on micro crickets in the pet shop,but I took the plunge and offered it a normal crick, with the back legs cut off.
The cricket was far larger than the spider itself - but Pele took it no problem.
He's now looking extremely fat, so I can leave him without foodfor a while. Hopefully that missing front leg will regenerate with the next moult.
I'll be interested to see when he starts losing his "baby colours"
Update complete!
Here's another one who just moulted - Guarico is now a handsome jet black spiderling with flesh coloured markings (these will deepen to orange as he matures)
Guarico is bigger then Pele, but his skittish and secretive nature makes holding him an impossibility for now
Taking pics of him through the glass will be much easier when I get him into a larger tank.
Pele
The seven-legged Pinktoe is eating like a horse. It was being fed on micro crickets in the pet shop,but I took the plunge and offered it a normal crick, with the back legs cut off.
The cricket was far larger than the spider itself - but Pele took it no problem.
He's now looking extremely fat, so I can leave him without foodfor a while. Hopefully that missing front leg will regenerate with the next moult.
I'll be interested to see when he starts losing his "baby colours"
Update complete!
Associate
Well I finally got all the family down to the local T dealers on Saturday and was pretty impressed. The T's were crammed into the back of the shop but there was no trouble looking at any of the examples as the T guy was there to show them off.
The only slings he had were C.Roses; which I'm not too bothered about but he had plenty of other T's from about 3cm upwards; including lots of different Baboons, one of which was a Stout Legged which I thought looked fantastic
. He also had a Thai Black which looked quite plain & I *think* an Indian Ornamental.
As there were five of us things got a bit hectic so we ended up leaving without buying anything; as each of the kids were hassling us to buy them something different - snakes, turtles, giant snails etc!. The GF was well impressed with the chameleons though.
On Sunday we went out to a local wildlife place with a hot house; they only had two T's - a Red Rump adult which looked pretty boring and an Indian Ornamental adult which looked absolutely amazing There was a chameleon there too & the GF loved that, so I think May will see the purchase of a T & a chameleon
Now all we need to do is to find enough room to house them
The only slings he had were C.Roses; which I'm not too bothered about but he had plenty of other T's from about 3cm upwards; including lots of different Baboons, one of which was a Stout Legged which I thought looked fantastic
. He also had a Thai Black which looked quite plain & I *think* an Indian Ornamental.As there were five of us things got a bit hectic so we ended up leaving without buying anything; as each of the kids were hassling us to buy them something different - snakes, turtles, giant snails etc!. The GF was well impressed with the chameleons though.
On Sunday we went out to a local wildlife place with a hot house; they only had two T's - a Red Rump adult which looked pretty boring and an Indian Ornamental adult which looked absolutely amazing
There was a chameleon there too & the GF loved that, so I think May will see the purchase of a T & a chameleon Now all we need to do is to find enough room to house them
Stout legged baboons (E. pachypus is the latin name I believe) are one of the funniest looking spiders around - all hairy legs
Not for the beginner mind you, and neither are the (admittedly gorgeous) Ornamentals (Poecilotheria sp.)
Repo, if you are seriously considering getting a T, I advise you to wait for the BTS show in May - there will be loads of cool stuff on sale.
If you want I don't mind picking you up a certain T that you want - as long as you definitely want it!
It's on May 18th, drop me a line nearer the time if you want me to shop for you
Not for the beginner mind you, and neither are the (admittedly gorgeous) Ornamentals (Poecilotheria sp.)
Repo, if you are seriously considering getting a T, I advise you to wait for the BTS show in May - there will be loads of cool stuff on sale.
If you want I don't mind picking you up a certain T that you want - as long as you definitely want it!
It's on May 18th, drop me a line nearer the time if you want me to shop for you
It's not really a big deal for a tarantula, even one so small. The leg should be fully regenerated in a few monthsOriginally posted by DirtyMinx
I hadn't realised you had another one missing a leg.
I'd been looking at most of the suggested sites and it seems that most dealers seem to be out of the spiderlings I've been considering at the momment.
Just had a flick through the Yellow Pages and discovered that there is an Exotic Pets Shop that says they have Spiders in the town over from me. So I'll go have a look tommorow.
Just had a flick through the Yellow Pages and discovered that there is an Exotic Pets Shop that says they have Spiders in the town over from me. So I'll go have a look tommorow.
had a bit of an emergency tonight. i noticed that my a.metallica had escaped !!!
it must have happened yesterday when i was trying to catch a cricket. i had just sprayed his home with a little water and seeing him in the corner i dind't think he would move as i tried to catch a crick for him. when i closed his lid i didn't notice that he had gone.
so this morning i was looking at him and couldn't find him. i thought that he must be hiding in the cork bark somewhere so left the house for work. came back tonight and had a really good look round and noticed he wasn't there. didn't take long to find him though he was in a corner of the room on the roof
it's lucky that an aboreal escaped. i'd have had a much tougher time finding my ground dwelling ones or burrowing types
must be more careful when the petpal is open next time !
it must have happened yesterday when i was trying to catch a cricket. i had just sprayed his home with a little water and seeing him in the corner i dind't think he would move as i tried to catch a crick for him. when i closed his lid i didn't notice that he had gone.
so this morning i was looking at him and couldn't find him. i thought that he must be hiding in the cork bark somewhere so left the house for work. came back tonight and had a really good look round and noticed he wasn't there. didn't take long to find him though
he was in a corner of the room on the roof it's lucky that an aboreal escaped. i'd have had a much tougher time finding my ground dwelling ones or burrowing types
must be more careful when the petpal is open next time !
Soldato
Lucky you found him
My avics have a nasty habit of making a break for freedom too. My versi jumped out onto my hand and proceeded to leg it last week when I was poking a cricket into his tank. Thankfully I managed to get him back in again easily The geroldi also comes sauntering out when I open his tank sometimes. You have to be careful with avics because they can and do jump quite a lot. Both of mine have randomly jumped when I wasn't expecting it. They can't half travel
Oh and my B. vagans is looking pretty fat at the moment. I turned his tank around last night to see if he would migrate out of his burrow to the other end of the tank. Sure enough, he was clung to the glass at other end this morning, and I took the opportunity to give him another mealworm. Didn't take any persuading, though he did initially give me a threat pose.... I'm getting used to that though, ever time I open the lid he's got his legs in the air or is kicking hairs. Psycho!
You couldn't take him to a posh restaurant with table manners like that!
I see you baby, shaking that (fat) ass.
My avics have a nasty habit of making a break for freedom too. My versi jumped out onto my hand and proceeded to leg it last week when I was poking a cricket into his tank. Thankfully I managed to get him back in again easily
The geroldi also comes sauntering out when I open his tank sometimes. You have to be careful with avics because they can and do jump quite a lot. Both of mine have randomly jumped when I wasn't expecting it. They can't half travel Oh and my B. vagans is looking pretty fat at the moment. I turned his tank around last night to see if he would migrate out of his burrow to the other end of the tank. Sure enough, he was clung to the glass at other end this morning, and I took the opportunity to give him another mealworm. Didn't take any persuading, though he did initially give me a threat pose.... I'm getting used to that though, ever time I open the lid he's got his legs in the air or is kicking hairs. Psycho!
You couldn't take him to a posh restaurant with table manners like that!
I see you baby, shaking that (fat) ass.
Damn, spent half n hour looking for this shop, found it and its closed on Tuesdays
They appear to have one main front window which had lots of lizards then a second part to the shop and window that was all blacked out, so pherhaps they have some Tarantulas back there. I'll go see tommorow now.
They appear to have one main front window which had lots of lizards then a second part to the shop and window that was all blacked out, so pherhaps they have some Tarantulas back there. I'll go see tommorow now.
Associate
Hey Repo, just a note of warning mate, dont bother getting a chameleon unless you have some decent experience in keeping reptiles and other exotics. they are notoriously difficult to keep, suffer from respiraratory problems in captivity, most of them wont take water from a bowl, they have to be drip fed, they are extremely nervous, dont handle easily, get scared of rooms with traffic moving in and out etc etc.
You may well know all this, but after reading a load of fact sheets i thought better of it.
One day...one day.
And just to stay on topic, youve all got some beautiful T's there, and i still cant believe how small they start (i.e. Pele).
If you was to put them into a breeding program, would you be paid and get a share of the spiderlings, or just get paid? just curious.....
You may well know all this, but after reading a load of fact sheets i thought better of it.
One day...one day.
And just to stay on topic, youve all got some beautiful T's there, and i still cant believe how small they start (i.e. Pele).
If you was to put them into a breeding program, would you be paid and get a share of the spiderlings, or just get paid? just curious.....
Soldato
It depends what your deal with the other breeder is. You can either have a percentage of the slings to sell off or give away or you just have 50% of whatever is made on the sling sales. Some people don't even bother with that. It's not particularly lucrative though, unless you've just bred something incredibly rare, or a T. blondi
Associate
Originally posted by Lopéz
Repo, if you are seriously considering getting a T, I advise you to wait for the BTS show in May - there will be loads of cool stuff on sale.
If you want I don't mind picking you up a certain T that you want - as long as you definitely want it!
It's on May 18th, drop me a line nearer the time if you want me to shop for you
I was hoping to go, so I'll wait till then; thanks for the offer; I'll take it up if I can’t make it
Ahhhhhhhhh crap….
Thanks for that mate; I've not done any research into keeping chameleons yet; but was going to. I've spent about 5-6 weeks on and off looking at T care sheets; websites etc to make sure that keeping a T is OK as we have a very busy house; 3 kids, a cat, a rabbit, some goldfish etc. etc. so I would have done my research properly first as I try not to jump feet first into something that involves other living things
I haven't kept a reptile before but knew they could be fairly demanding. Looks like the youngests idea of a giant land snail might be a better idea than I first thought!
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Nexus, I'd advise you to do the same as Repo and wait for the BTS show in May - there should be a fantastic range of stuff available.
I've moved Guarico into a larger tank as he seems to be growing nicely. Managed to get a pic for scale whilst transferring him:
I've also moved Maz back into his original (smaller) tank - he seemed a little stressed and lost in the large tank.
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