So, you want to keep a pet tarantula?

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Wow, what a stunning Avic avic you have there and at a most excellent price too! £20 isn't half bad at all seeing as my 10p-sized (at the time) Avicularia geroldi drained me of £25. They're now selling them in Germany for 3€, grrrrr. I love the avics because they provide for me what is the ideal T. Zero aggression, comedy walking, 100% gorgeousness and relatively few urticating hairs. Perfect.

And.... the guy has MORE AVICS??????? excellent. I'm tempted.

It seems as though I moved my beloved Tamil in to her new home just in time because she moulted on Tuesday a mere 1 month after her last moult. That timing is absolutely mental considering her size. Proof that powerfeeding must work. Had she moulted it in her old tank, I dread to think what might have happened because she couldn't even lie flat against the side in there. She'd probably have had much difficulty and possibly even died.

Nevertheless, she's one HELL of a fine T now. Note how much she webbed since I put her in there on Sunday. It seems to me that she's far happier in her new tank.

She's grown about an inch. I measured her legspan at approximately 5.5", which indicates that she's probably just about mature now. Looks like I'll be scouting around for a boyfriend for her before too long.

Tamil24.jpg


Tamil25.jpg


Check out those huge white fangs, soon to be jet black and lethal to cricks.

Tamil26.jpg


Her old skin had a legspan (top right to bottom left) of just under 4.5"

Tamil27.jpg


She's a beauty. I MUST have more pokies, they're probably my favourite genus closely followed by avics.
 
What's going on?

My T has thrown up some webbing over the last 36 hours. It's never done that before.
Could this be a precursor to a moult or maybe just settling in. :confused:

here's some pictures of what I mean.

spider07.jpg

spider08.jpg
 
Goliath

I went to Chester Zoo on Wednesday 9th.
Took a picture of a Goliath Birdeater.
goliath.jpg

Look how bald it's abdomen is. Someone has really pi**ed this spider off.
 
My Boehemi has never really done much in the way of webbing, even when it moulted.

Since being back home Ive been struggling to find anywhere near me that does exotic pets. I noticed Viriginia Cheeseman is relocating to nearby, so hopefully I can go have a look at all her stock when she has moved in and has an open day.

Anyways, fiddling around with search engines I found a place in a nearby town, so I'm going to go and check it out tommorow. If they have an arboreal that isn't too agressive, Im coming home with it!
 
Lots to catch up on!

si_sleaf
How are the new Baboons settling in? If your Usambara is anything like mine it will be a webbing machine.

azrael357
Webbing is generally a sign that the T is indeed "settling in"
Some do it, some don't. There's no need to worry.
With regards to feeding, when it gets to that sort of size, stop the food. A distended abdomen can cause problems at moult time. T's can survive on 1 crick a fortnight or several each day - I'd say 3 to 5 a week is a nice balance.
Oh, and blondi's always look like that (bald) They're just generally bitchy and bad tempered.

Repo
That's a nice price for a nice Avic - can't wait until my Pelé gets to that sort of size.

I just wanted to post a couple of nice pics I took last week

First up is Bangkok, my Cobalt Blue. Nicely darkening down now, and should get bluer with every moult. I can't wait, adult females are stunning.

Bangkok05


Bangkok06


Secondly, I decided to get a few pics of Maz, who is normally pretty secretive, while putting him into a new tank.
Here's another one who gets prettier with each moult.

Maz10


Maz11


Maz12
 
Originally posted by Lopéz
Lots to catch up on!

si_sleaf
How are the new Baboons settling in? If your Usambara is anything like mine it will be a webbing machine.
Click to expand...


They're ok. The Usambara has done a bit of webbing in his tub and made a bit of a hidey hole round the back of a smal piece of bark I put in there for him. I shouldn't be calling it a "him" actually, my girlfriend has decided to call it "June" as in "Terry and June." Thats's right, the straighthorn baboon has been called "Terry." Terry has made a bit of a web "tunnel" and wanders up and down in it, looking for food.

Both of the spiders have settled in nicely. Terry has eaten two mini-locusts and June has eaten one too. I'll try and get some more photos up in the next couple of days, I gotta go to a wedding today. Rather be outside on my Trek bike doin' a bit of offroading:(
 
I am very glad I went to that pet shop! :)http://www.ameyzoo.co.uk/

It was a nice shop, the only spiders I found were some smallish vials, they were Cobalt Blues, Orange Baboons and one ornamental. I toyed with the idea of getting a Baboon, but Im still not sure whether Im ready for a spiting ball of hellfire.

Anyways I walked around the corner of the shop and then noticed that they actually had a whole wall of Ts! A lot of Brachs, curlys, stripped knees, a goliath birdeater and so many more. Then I noticed that they had loads of GreenBottle blues.

So the guy got me one down to have a look at and it is just so pretty that I knew I couldnt leave without one. So he found me one that was a sexed small adult female, and I brought it for £32. :D

The other great thing is that this guy can build any custom cage you like, and they had a good few on display. Before I go back to uni I'm going to have him build me a 4 in one unit aqaurim to house all my Ts.

Anyways, a name and pics of my T will come later. I'm in the process of moving her because the tub she is in is not very see through and is larger than Id like.
 
OMG, just dropped a cricket in, it lunged at the cricket and the cricket jumped. The T then jumped off of its log and grabbed the cricket in the air and landed on its back! How cool... wish Id filmed it.
 
Nexus, that would have been awesome to watch.
It's cool that the T ambles around slowly but can be as quick as lightning when it want's to be.

Yesterday a cricket walked into my T and the T put it's leg on top of it.
The cricket stayed motionless for about 5 minutes with this leg on top of it until eventually it moved.
At which point....CHOMP!!!!
 
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WOW 50th page.

Lopez,

I can't view that avi file. I've tried using Windows media player and quicktime on the PC and quicktime on an Apple Mac.

Latest codecs are installed as well.

Hmm
 
Originally posted by Lopéz
For those of you who like hunting vids, check out this movie of a C cyaneopubescens nailing a cricket. Awesome speed!

Right click, Save As
Click to expand...

Heck! that is amazing & I know how fast they be :)

I see Rich at Brum-T's has some P.Ornata's slings for sale for £8 each. Not sure I'm ready for a Pokey yet tho :(


PS: Lopez - is that real moss you've got in with that Cobalt?
 
Repo, I went out into the garden and collected a load of moss. I then arranged it on a shallow IKEA tray, persuaded the spider out and let it walk across the moss while I took the pictures :)

If you had a mini-ecosystem tank, with a bit of running water, rocks, multi-levels etc (like they keep tree frogs and things in in zoos) then I'm sure you could happily have moss growing in the tank.

Incidentally, many experienced T keepers (including Rick C West) just use normal garden soil as substrate - no sterilising, no fancy peat, just lob in some dirt. :)
 
As promised, here is my Greenbottle blue, I haven't named her yet. Im trying to find a Venezuelan name, if I fail to do that I'll probably call her after something fast due to her being so damn quick! :p

gbb.jpg
Such amazing colours

gbb2.jpg
This is what I got her in, as you can see it was not very see through and it was looking a bit wet and mouldy. Caresheets suggest keeping them pretty dry to mimic where they are from. When I removed that log tube I found the remains of a few old moults inside it.

gbb3.jpg
This is her new home setup.

gbb4.jpg
This is after her busy night of webbing and trashing off my flower display!! grr, sorry but I'm going to have to move it as your are blocking your water bowl with it!
 
Nexus he's a proper beauty. Lovely pics too. I think yours is a few moults ahead of mine because he's chunkier with a greener carapace. Yours looks as if he's very recently moulted too :) Beautiful T!

And be thankful for that small amount of webbing... at least you can SEE your GBB;

findthet.jpg


:D
 
LOL

Its still at the webbing though, when I woke up this morning it was right at the top of the cage going around in circles laying down more web. I think Im going to have to buy a proper waterbowl as the large bottle cap I was using is just buried in silk.
 
Moult

I've noticed yesterday that the little light brown bald patch on my T is now very dark like a greyish black. Looks like a moult is on the way.

What timescale am I looking at for the T to moult?

I'm really excited as this is my first moult:D :D :D
 
Some advise please..

I'm thinking of getting a 2nd tarantula and was wondering where is the best place to purchase them, either local in Stoke / Staffs or Online (Also is online Tarantula purchasing advisable – do they get stressed in transit etc???)

Also what species to go for, I currently have a unusually vicious female Chile Rose approx 12 years old. I was thinking of a cobalt blue for the looks or a bird eater for the sheer size :D are there any others I should consider? Maybe a really ferocious breed? - although my Chile Rose would take some beating (she must have permanent PMS)

Well any help would be really appreciated
 
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