Tarantulas!!!

[FrogFan89]

Anyone here keep these?

I adore my T's so much. I think out of all the pets you can own, they are by far the easiest, I'd say even easier and simpler than frogs, obviously all pets have pros and cons and don't love my whites tree frog any less <3

Pros of keeping T's:

1. Noiseless - you don't hear a peep from T's so if you keep them in your room. Won't wake you up.

2. Don't smell - yes T's do not smell, their poop is so small and fine, doesn't cause odor and only need their enclosure cleaned maybe every 8 months to once a year.

3. Don't eat much - T's having a VERY slow metabolism only eat once a week or even once every 2 weeks. If given a large meal, can be fed once a month.

4. Don't need heat or additional lighting - if you are warm and comfortable in the room they are kept in, then your T's will be. T's do NOT need a heat mat unless its abnormally cold in your home. Many pet stores will sell you heat mats to make a extra buck. T's hate bright light so additional lighting is not appreciated so no worries about electricity bills.

5. Many species available - If you are a new keeper or a advanced keeper, there IS a species to suit everyone.

6. Don't need massive enclosure like some reptiles. If you want a pet that needs less space, a T is for you, many will buy massive enclosures but this is not appreciated by a Tarantula, in fact can cause stress. Because one, they have bad eye sight, almost blind so harder to find food and two, they prefer to feel enclosed and spend most of their time hiding so loads of floor space is wasted.

7. Missing a feeding will not kill them - Tarantulas can go a very long time without food, going 18 months without food is normal for a Tarantula. (not including slings in this) So if you forget to feed them for 3-4 weeks, that time period is nothing to them.

Cons of keeping T's:

1. Don't like handling - This usually gets a mixed answer, you CAN handle T's but they generally do not like it. They are a look at but do not touch pet.

2. Price range - This can sometimes be a issue... if you are a T collector, you can pay as cheap as £2.50 for a sling (baby) of more common species, up to £100+ for rarer species such as the Goliath Bird Eater.

3. WC (wild caught species) - This is something I am HIGHLY against, some species that are available are WC and sometimes can arrive to you dead or have parasites and risk of infecting your collection.

4. Venomous - All Tarantulas are venomous to some degree, some worse than others such as the King Baboon's bite which is very painful. In some cases if you happen to be allergic to their venom, you can go into shock and die but that's 1 in more than 10 million for that to happen and not very common.

5. Molting - When a Tarantula is in pre molt (there new exo skeleton is growing underneath) some T's such as slow growing species can be pre molt for days, weeks or even months and when in pre-molt, will not eat and hide until it molts. Some have been in pre molt for 18 months or even longer. A T will molt when its ready.

6. Hair kicking - New world T's such as the mexican red knee can kick hairs off their abdomen if they feel in danger or provoked and if this gets on your skin can cause a rash and irritation but does not cause any lasting damage also a reason to not handle them

Currently I have.

Curly haired Tarantula.
Mexican Red Knee Tarantula.
White Striped Bird Eater.

[deranged chipmunk]

Yup. A few of us keep them. I keep a pink toe (avicularia avicularia) and a Chilean rose (grammastola Rosea). I'm hoping to add a pink salmon bird eater this summer.

Matt will probably be along in a while, he keeps about 40 T's.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Lija]

Bill he keeps probably more then 40 lol

I have curly hair and red knee.

[MatthewM1]

Not quite up to 40 yet =p currently 33. I dabble in selling T's and have breeding plans for the near future so the number is always changing lol.

I agree with you on almost every point FrogFan89.

Cleaning a T's enclosure once a year is more than necessary. Theres essentially no reason to ever do a full clean out of an enclosure. Just spot clean leftovers and clean poo of the walls of arboreals. Changing substrate for a T is like rearranging a blind persons furniture.

WC T's are a necessity to bring new species to the hobby. But I agree that some species are over collected. The pet trade has raped the wild population on Grammostola rosea and porteri, I'm not going to be surprised when they get a CITES listing just like Brachypelma.

The price range can be pretty crazy, even more so here in the US. Species like Harpactira pulchripes slings go for a few hundred dollars a piece.

I find #4 and #5 on your cons list are pros =p

But I agree completely with the hair kicking. Gets annoying lol. Much easier to avoid fangs than clouds of hairs.

[Bombina Bob]

I totally agree that they are much easier to care for than frogs. However, not a lot of people are aware of how great they are as pets. the species i've worked with are the rosehairs, pinktoes, birdeaters, and one pokie. I love it how the Orange Baboon Tarantulas are nicknamed for short OBTs (or Orange Bitey Things )

[MatthewM1]

One other thing I recommend for anyone interested in Tarantulas, learn the binomial names. The commmon ones are even more useless than they are with herps.

For example Bob mentioned "birdeater" this term gets thrown around for any large NW terrestrial. Theraphosa spp., Nhandu spp., Lasiodora spp., Phamphobetus spp., Phormictopus spp., Xenthis spp., and others all get called some kind of birdeater.

"Pinktoe" covers the entire Avicularia genus.

And because of names like "orange baboon tarantula" when someone outside the US posts a picture of a normal color form Pterinochilus murinus people get all up in arms because its not orange.

[deranged chipmunk]

I agree there. Plants are the same. I can think of 3 or 4 different species of plants that are all named "baby tears".


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela