My other obsession..

[Jace]

So, in addition to the 8 Pacific Chorus frogs, 8 FBTs, 3 Giant African Bullfrogs, 1 American Green Treefrog and 1 Western toad, I have found another passion: tarantulas! Joining my first T (a Pink Toe named Kamani) are: Frapp, Chilean rose (MM); Chili, Chilean rose (F); Tar, Pink Toe metallic (MM).....

[Jace]

And the two newest additions: Sokka, Chilean Copper (MM) and a beautiful regular morph cornsnake we named Stinson.

[DonLisk]

I never got into the spiders. What do you feed them? They are definitely cool looking but my wife would make me take him out to the igloo which would then become my permanent home :-)

As for snakes..... would love to bring home a Lemon Ball Python someday.

[Ebony]

Wow!! Jo..you really have expanded your collection and your new members to the family are awesome. Great photos

[Whistly]

Dam you have a big collection (and a very good one at that) slow down you've got more pets than me how has this happened I'll have to breed my finches again lol.

[lnaminneci]

Gorgeous T's Jo-Anna! You have made me start to look at some......yikes! lol
And I have always liked snakes, especially ball pythons....I don't see getting one in the near future though.

Thanks for sharing the photos! I always enjoy seeing them.

~Lesley

[Jace]

Thanks everyone!

Don, I feed them a main staple of crickets, with an occassional mealworm. I was hoping to continue to breed Hissing roaches for them, but the babies take too long to grow to a decent size and are excellent escape artists...which lands me in the dog house! I love ball pythons as well, and having one is definitely on my want list. Lemons are beautiful, as are the pieds, but you need to have deep pockets for them! Right now, I am saving up for another corn snake to be named Mosby.

Yes, Ebony, the spider population in my house just exploded! Though I have been told that if any escape...well, it wouldn't be pretty for the tarantula. But they are great additions to the household.

Lol-thanks Luke. Between the frogs, toads, geckos (2), dogs (2) and cats (3), I have my own zoo. I should charge for admission and offset a few of the feeding costs! I love finches, though-absolutely beautiful and if you breed them, my hats off to you!

Lesley, tarantulas make awesome pets. Very easy to care for and always a topic of conversation. And there are lots of great beginner T's available for a good price! If you need help, let me know!! Just like frogs, researching before buying is always smart!

[bshmerlie]

Yeah I was looking at getting one awhile back but it quickly got vetoed in my house. Like Don I would have been booted outside. We don't have igloos in southern california....we have pool houses. Sorry Don not as striped down as the igloo.

[Whistly]

I would like to take credit for my finches but all I did was build a nesting box for my 5 budgies but the finches took over it and every 2-3 months there's another lot of eggs. Their last lot was the biggest having 9 babies and 2 eggs that fell out of the nest and cracked just think I could have had 11 lol.
How much are you thinking of charging I think $10 sounds good.

[Jace]

Cheri, the tarantulas weren't a huge hit in my house either, which is why I am the only one that feeds them, waters them, and on the rare occassion, handles them. Oh, and did I mention they are all in locking containers??? Worth it to have them though.

Wow, Luke, I can't even imagine 11 eggs, with 9 hatching!! Those poor parents-LOL! I really love the finches calls-very beautiful. Honestly, I am not a huge pet bird fan, but I do have a soft spot for finches. As for admission, I think $10 is a great starting point....plus $5 to hold the massive African Bullfrog, Gherkin, with a complimentary photo! I really sense a money making there......

[Whistly]

lol you could give Gherkin a muddy foot and charge an extra $5 for signed photos lol.

I wasn't really interested in birds until my friend gave me my first pet bird an albino budgie. Over the years my collection has grown. My first finches were a pair of zebras but a cat got the male and it's leg was pretty much ripped off and yet it survived a whole day. The male I bought then escaped from the aviary so I got another which died from the cold and the week after the female died (also from the cold) which leads me to the female I have now but because the pet shops house different finch species together and bengalese and zebra females look the same I accidently got a bengalese female for the price of a zebra (bargain). Then something got into the aviary ripped all the finches to pieces babies and all the only survivors were all my budgies and the bengalese female which I still have. So I had to buy another finch so I wanted a Bengalese but all the shops had run out of them so I got a Zebra. The female has escaped twice but always comes back trying to get to her partner so I put all the birds in a cage in the aviary, leave the door open and the next morning the female is in the aviary. The cross bred finches look much better than the pure breds, and I can sell them to the pet shops for quite a bit more than they sell pure bred Zebra finches.

Unfortunately I haven't had any succes with breeding the budgies. I do apologise for the long story.

[Jace]

No worries! Sounds like you have had quite the interesting time with the poor finches. I have never tried to breed any of my animal-lack of time, space and funds account for a lot of that, though local pet shops and friends have shown an interest in what I have. Maybe one day, but definitely not now. I was willing to breed my geckos, but when I found out they were brother and sister, that nixed that idea quickly!! Too bad-the offspring would have been interesting to see...anyway, off topic a bit!

I will keep that in mind about the muddy foot and Gherkin. Luckily, he doesn't mind his feet touched...as long as I feed him really well beforehand!

[Animalnstinct]

Really nice collection Jace! Aren't they so addicting, lol! Love how you have the Avatar names too! Currently I have an Appa and MoMo in our collection. Appa being one of my pacman and MoMo being a tarantula.

You'll have to breed one your tarantulas someday, it's an amazing process. I love how they tap !

It's hard keeping the addiction under control but thankfully we are managing a bit. Currently we just have 25 tarantulas, plus 3 coming tomorrow. If we didn't have a little self control we would probably be up over 100, lol.

[Jace]

Thanks Jen! Your husband has helped me quite a bit with my T's, both on here and on tarantulas.us and I really admire your collection and dedication to your pets. They are very addicting and I was very lucky to acquire Sokka, especially since I have never heard of a Chilean copper before. However, my store recently brought in a Mexican blonde and might order a Pink zebra beauty-both on my want list!!! Makes it very hard to say no. And they have to have cool names...I'm rather obsessed with finding the perfect one too! Breeding will come some day-and then you two will really get some questions!! ;-)

[Whistly]

Lol the baby Geckos could have 3 eyes simpsons style

[Jace]

That is what my daughter said, too, Luke! My female, Afton, is completely patternless (flesh coloured from head to toe), while my male, Mika, is the regular spotted gecko. Not knowing what their backgrounds are, the offpsring possibilities could be endless! However, fan of the Simpsons or not, three eyed varieties might not be that popular!! They are only two years old though, so I still have time to find them a partner if I want.

[Immortal]

Nice to see your T's! Your second rosie looks like he/she is doing a pokie stance lol.

May I make a suggestion for your rosies? When we got our first one, which was a rosie, we too put her on that same substrate. We then found out she hated it and she'd try to climb the walls and a rock in the tank. What is best for rosies/desert T's is a fairly dry substrate of eco-earth in a brick form. She was a lot happier once we switched her to that =)

[Jace]

Thanks, Lor! I really love my T's and the hardest part is not bringing every single one home that I come across. Luckily, Frap and Tar were rescues, so I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Thanks for the suggestion about the substrate. Neither Frapp, Chili or Sokka seem to mind the substrate as of yet. However, with my collection of reptiles and amphibians, I have several other substrates in bulk. close at hand, in case a quick change is in order. Can never be too prepared, right?? My car emergency kit is incomplete, but dang it, I have pet substrates covered!!

[Immortal]

Oh I know, we keep seeing rosies in pet stores and we want to save them all from their horrible environment! But we can't. They can live 30 years LOL. Then the pet stores would just get more in anyways....

What do you mean rescue? Tell me about that!

Yeah we tend to have a lot of different stuff to mess around with too from all the animals lol.

[Jace]

Frapp was bought a couple of years ago from the same pets store that I know work at. I guess the woman is....interesting, let's put it that way! Anyway, one day she just decided she didn't want him anymore, walks into our store, with his setup and everything, drops it all on the front counter and states: "Either you take it back or I'll squish it. You decide." We naturally took him back. I saw him in our back reptile room, hiding under his coconut, surrounded by old webbing, moldy crickets that had died and never been removed, and a water dish that had slime growing all over it. Not the best living situation. Once I saw the tibial hooks and clubbed pedipalps-plus a damaged front leg-I knew we would never be able to resell him, so I offered to take him home and let him live out his last few months like a king! He is a beautiful brown and golden red colour, and I named him Frappicino, or Frapp for short. If my female was ready, I would actually love to breed him since his colouring is that amazing. He would make some very nice babies! Tar was at the pet store for almost a year-he was adopted and returned (the guest thought it would be a cool gift for his son who was terrified of spiders....sigh) and he was rather large and intimidating looking. So, I brought him and Frapp home the same day and set them up. I thought Tar was a female at first-and an A. versicolor (as per the label)-only to discover he was a male (and mature, at that) and an A. metallica! No regrets though. They are amazing T's and have definitely fueled the obsession!!