So, you want to keep a pet tarantula?

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Originally posted by Repo
hmm... I gave Houdini a mealworm about 7pm... s/he's still sucking on it now - do they always take this long?

The abdomen is visibly much bigger than it was before - I'm waiting for it to explode like the Gremlin does in the microwave (you'll know what I mean if you've seen that movie :p )
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Yes, they take forever to eat stuff, don't worry :)
 
Are you sure they don't explode ? :confused: :p


S/He's still at it & the abdomen is about 3x the size it was before O_o
 
Originally posted by Repo
Are you sure they don't explode ? :confused: :p


S/He's still at it & the abdomen is about 3x the size it was before O_o
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Mental isn't it? Spiders only eat until they are full.
Their abdomens can swell to a ridiculous size - but personally as soon as they get a little tubby I feel it's safer to cut down on the food - a swollen abdomen can increase the chance of a rupture.
 
A slightly (!) blurry piccy of Houdini :)

Managed to borrow an old digicam - distance shots are good but the macro ones stink!


houdini.jpg
 
I will try to post a pic of my indian ornamental sling for you as soon as he reappears. He has built a little den for himself by webbing substrate to the underside of a small piece of bark I found for him. All I can see is the very tips of his legs at the moment. Thats all I've seen of him so far since I put him in there:(

On the good news front, He has muched through three crickets this week:D
 
Anyone ordered anything from Easyexotics before? Just wondering how long stuff normally takes from there :)

Marcelo is looking a lot redder now he has had time to harden up :)
 
I'm positive I read that someone on this thread ordered from EasyExotics. I'm currently trying to make up my mind where to order from, probably tied between this or Virgina Cheeseman.

I do like that EasyExotics offer a lot of equipment such as cork bark, water bowls, heatmats. I'm thinking of buying a glass tank from them, as they do some in decent sizes that are long in length but are not to high. I also want to enquire about the 'specalist tanks' they can make; it may have a proper lid to it, which I would otherwise have to make with a flimsy plastic lid often found on glass ones.
 
Originally posted by SaBBz
Anyone ordered anything from Easyexotics before? Just wondering how long stuff normally takes from there :)

Marcelo is looking a lot redder now he has had time to harden up :)
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Ordered a new heatmat last week and it arrived in 2 days :)
 
At last, Pele has decided to shed his skin.
For the last few days his legs have faded from salmon pink down to a dull grey (this is the new, darker cuticle forming beneath the old skin) so I knew a shed had to be imminent.

Came home from work to find one crumpled little skin, and one gangly spider. He is still very pale, translucent grey legs which might regain their pinkness as he hardens off - I'm not honestly sure, because baby Pink Toes undergo a complete colour change as they grow - changing from pink to black. I'm not sure at what stage this happens or if it's a gradual transformation.
More good news is that his missing leg has regenerated. :)
I can't really get a pic of Pele through his (immensely strong!) web, but here's the skin, with a coke bottle top for scale:

Pele04


EDIT:

He's come out for a stretch:

Pele05
 
I went back to my local pet shop this morning to see what they had got in. They still had that Mexican Red Knee that I was tempted by, but it wasnt quite old enough to be sexed so £80 seems a lot for a 50/50 chance of getting a female. They had a couple of juvenile Chilean Roses' a Venezuelan Sun Tiger and a Thailand Black; the guy opened up the container containing the Thai Black, not a nice spider at all, agressive little thing. They have quite a big collection of non-tarantula spiders also, but they aren't really my thing.

They had some Mexican Red Knee spiderlings as the owner breeds them so I thought I'd take one of them.

tequila.jpg


I've named her Tequila, she is a bit smaller in size than Shiva and her colour at the momment is pretty similar. From talking to the owner of the shop about the spiderlings he has sold, I should think that Shiva should molt towards then end of next week hopefully.
 
Originally posted by Nexus
I went back to my local pet shop this morning to see what they had got in. They still had that Mexican Red Knee that I was tempted by, but it wasnt quite old enough to be sexed so £80 seems a lot for a 50/50 chance of getting a female.
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You can sex tarantulas from a very young age. Rio was about 4cm long when I first got her and she was already sexed. Either your shop keeper isn't very good/confident at sexing, or they know it's a male and want to wait for a more unsuspecting customer to come along :)

Anyway, I've had another moult today :) I said to Leon last night that Sanchez was premoult because his abdomen had gone from pinky to black. Sure enough, I looked in the tank at 10am to see one flipped over spider

Sanchez27.jpg

Anyway, whilst he was lay there (for 3 HOURS before he even moved a leg), I thought I'd take a few pics and see if I could sex him. I was successful, and a couple of other people confirmed this for me and he... is a SHE. Very pleased!

Anyway the old girl started moving about again, shed her skin and flipped over within the next 1.5hours. That's 4.5hrs of totally defensless tarantula.. Very useful in the wild! Behold her beautiful new fangs which, no doubt, she'll try to sink into my hand at some point soon.
Sanchez33.jpg


I really wanted to see how they flip over, but missed Rio and Jez doing it, so I made sure that I didn't leave her until she'd flipped. She just rolled casually over like she was stretching and turning over in bed. Bless!

And here she is flipped back over and looking very silly, all huddled up.
Sanchez40.jpg


Her old skin measures nearly 2.5" long and is exactly the same size as Rio's last skin. She's grown a lot, but not as much as Rio I don't think. Rio is skinny and lanky, wheras Sanchez is chunkier, but smaller. It makes sense because Rio should eventually grow to be far bigger than Sanchez, so she won't bulk out until later on.
 
You can sex tarantulas from a very young age. Rio was about 4cm long when I first got her and she was already sexed. Either your shop keeper isn't very good/confident at sexing, or they know it's a male and want to wait for a more unsuspecting customer to come along
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I figured as much. Considering he breeds the species himself, the females no doubt are sold instantly.

I have been 'bitten by the bug' though. I might have to get just one more that is a bit bigger in size from an online dealer. Not sure what though, maybe another species of Brachy or a curly hair.
 
Looking around various Tarantula sites today, I'm getting a bit worried. My new smithi does look a hell of a lot like my rosea, I know it only has like a 1cm leg span, is this just the way it is with them not having yet developed their colour?

The owner assured me it was a smithi as I made him double check. But Im no expert.
 
Originally posted by Nexus
Looking around various Tarantula sites today, I'm getting a bit worried. My new smithi does look a hell of a lot like my rosea, I know it only has like a 1cm leg span, is this just the way it is with them not having yet developed their colour?

The owner assured me it was a smithi as I made him double check. But Im no expert.
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Correct. Jez looked exactly the same at that size. All grammastolas and brachypelmas look remarkably similar until they reach about 1.5-2" and start getting their proper colouring. Don't worry :)
 
Originally posted by Nexus
Looking around various Tarantula sites today, I'm getting a bit worried. My new smithi does look a hell of a lot like my rosea, I know it only has like a 1cm leg span, is this just the way it is with them not having yet developed their colour?

The owner assured me it was a smithi as I made him double check. But Im no expert.
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Don't panic, most spiderlings (Avics excepted) look pretty much the same - small, pinky brown and plain. They won't change for a few months :) If the guy bred them he will know what is what :)
 
Great :p That puts my mind at rest. I'd just wanted to make sure. They do have some slight differences in their behaviour that I'd noticed. The smithi moves around a lot quicker and seems to do like hiding itself by burrowing down slightly.

I've decided to try and find a juvenileish Brachypelma Boehmei as my next one, just sent off a few e-mails to various places to see what they have.
 
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