Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....no, not chams, but two tarantulas! I know this isn't the "T" forum but wanted to share this in case others have T's, too. I am adopting a Goliath Bird Eater and a Chilean Rose Hair. I was hesitant b/c I did not want to have to feed the T. blondi (goliath) any mammals but he will do fine on inverts.

I'll post pix when I get them...any of you keep T's?

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Yeah, I keep tarantulas. Nothing too exotic (pink-toes, rose hairs, zebra legs. The ones you see pretty much all over) although I'd like to get a Cobalt Blue Tarantula I've seen @ LLL. They're really gorgeous.

I love these critters. I have one right now (pink toe) that's wild caught. My dad found him while coming home from a camping trip and scooped him up in his empty water bottle. One of his legs is really messed up and his abdomen isn't in the best of shape. I've had him since July, and he's doing pretty good. Normally I wouldn't have taken in a wild-caught animal, but it's a 5 hour drive to go put him back, and he wouldn't survive out here cuz it's super cold.

Sad, though, because you can tell he's older and nearing the end of his rope. Soon , anyway.

my little cousins hate them though. lol. They'll start screaming if all you do is tell them to go get me if in my room. lol There's no way they're going near my room with all these creepy-crawlies all over.

Sorry for side-tracking . . . Anyway, Viva Tarantula!

Hi Jon,

I had a pink toe, Rose, who died last halloween (2003) She died during a bad molt. Has yours molted since you have had him/her? She/he should regenerate leg and may also "heal" abdomen.

Unless you live in South America, it was a wild caught in an alien world (so to speak ) They are indigenous to the rain forest of SA. I loved my little Rose. The avic's are very pretty.

I have a 10 y.o. neighbor (boy) who freaked when I told him about the bird-eater I am getting. He thought I would feed it birds! - Don't think, so.

What do you use for substrate for your rose hair?

we may get booted to the tarantula forum - depends if folks complain or not. :-/

lele

>>Yeah, I keep tarantulas. Nothing too exotic (pink-toes, rose hairs, zebra legs. The ones you see pretty much all over) although I'd like to get a Cobalt Blue Tarantula I've seen @ LLL. They're really gorgeous.
>>
>>I love these critters. I have one right now (pink toe) that's wild caught. My dad found him while coming home from a camping trip and scooped him up in his empty water bottle. One of his legs is really messed up and his abdomen isn't in the best of shape. I've had him since July, and he's doing pretty good. Normally I wouldn't have taken in a wild-caught animal, but it's a 5 hour drive to go put him back, and he wouldn't survive out here cuz it's super cold.
>>
>>Sad, though, because you can tell he's older and nearing the end of his rope. Soon , anyway.
>>
>>my little cousins hate them though. lol. They'll start screaming if all you do is tell them to go get me if in my room. lol There's no way they're going near my room with all these creepy-crawlies all over.
>>
>>Sorry for side-tracking . . . Anyway, Viva Tarantula!
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Booted? From here? Well, maybe you two aren't yelling at eachother or starting full blown attacks... lol jk... sort of.

I think they are neat. I don't like little spiders... i have a strange fear of them going in my ears while i'm sleeping. NO idea why, but it would be gross!! They are fascinating though. I can't get one though. i live in an apt with my pops and he would kill me if one got out, plus we'd probably get the boot. Also, my bf is TERRIFIED of crix let alone spiders lol. He'd probabyl have a coniption if he came home to a T. Lol... would be pretty funny though. Maybe i should borrow one of yours? lol jk.
It's neat how they molt. My godmum had a casing of a tarantula mold. Not sure what breed. It was HUGE probably bigger than my hand. Well, it was her hubbies.. .she made it live in a drawer in a far away place lol.
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~Lindsay
0.1 panther chameleon (Orion)
1.2 r. brevicaudatus chams (unnamed)
0.1 leopard gecko (Acadia)
1.0 pictus gecko (Raine)
1.1 parakeets (Bongo/Citron)
1.1 cats (Tigger/Bonzai)
1.0 dwarf hampster (Chico the monster)
someday will have 1.1 great danes (will be Osiris and Solaris)

That's the thing! I wasn't sure what species it was (it's missing a LOT of hair, poor guy) But a trip to my friend's girlfriend's place (the invertabrate queen) with a pic . . . So I'm happy with callin it a pink toe (helps me forget that it might be really deadly!) j/k

She knows everything about invertabrates and I believed her. Me, I'm not as good as identifying them as I am taking care of them. I never really got in to tarantulas and scorpions (hopefully my girlfriend will let me buy my first one at the upcoming herp show!) until my buddy met this chick! Her room is literally FILLED with them. Mantids, millipeds, roaches, tarantulas, scorpions everywhere . . . and one cavy and a ball python. lol

Anyway . . .

I never really asked where my dad found it. I just know he went camping and came back with a tarantula. I have to call my parents up and ask em. For all I no he could have found it in a Wal-Mart parking lot on the way home! (god, I hate walk-mart . . . lol) I really should take a pic and show it to my vet the next time I'm there.

And nope, no molting.

too bad there's nothing you can really do to help a sick invertebrate critter like you can for reptiles and stuff. People need to get on that! tarantla heart surgery. lol

Jon,
since you know how to take care of tarantulas so well i was wondering if you knew is putting half sand (store bought and cleaned with Hot hot water first) on one side of the tank and half vermiculite on the other is ok for a tarantula? i just adopted an unwanted one from my best friend's little brother who decided he doesnt want to take care of it anymore and i couldnt imagine the fuzzy lil thing just suffering. anyway i was also wonder if it was a good idea to "hold" the spider (an chilean rose), do they like that? or would they rather be on their own?
thanx!!!
gogo

gogo - I can help you out here. If you are thinking of the sand for burrowing it will collapse. A combo of the two is fine, though. the vermiculite holds water and the sand helps with drainage. Buy builder's sand (aka playsand) at home depot. Straight vermiculite is usually prefered. As for handling the chilean rose hair is a good beginner T and will tolerate handling. if it is older and has not been handled you will have to work with it. Some things to remember:

do not squeeze it
do not put your hand over it and then slide athumb under it - fangs!

you can scoop it (both hands underneath).
make sure you are not ready to freak out - if you drop it, its abdomen can burst!

here's a link for you
chilean rose hair

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

The pink-toed are really very sweet. They are from SA, too, but I am sure there are feral ones roaming the southwest.

The American Tarantula Society has a forum on yahoo!groups. They used to be great about answering questions but I have been ignored with simple ??? the last week - ticks me off - but they are the experts. The best book is Tarantula Keeper's Guide by Stan Schultz

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

I keep some tarantulas as well, I have a mexican redknee, mexican flameknee, king baboon and a chaco giant golden knee.

Lele, you are crazy! I've seen those things at herp shows, and they are so intimidating looking!

Brave soul...

No, really, that's cool...please send pic's when you get them...I'm not over here very much anymore.

Kristen
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1.2 c. quadricornis
1.2 c.j. merumontanus
0.0.2 neonate c.j. merumontanus
1.1 r. brevicaudatus
0.0.2 red eared sliders

hey stranger! Where HAVE you been spending your time?? I would not buy a goliath but this is an adoption from a guy whose kid is off at college and he (Uncle Randy) has ended up being the keeper. Apparently he has lots of snakes to care for as it is. I will be going over tomorrow to check it out and then come back to set up tanks. The Chilean rose hair is handleable (is this a word??) like my Rose was(you might recall I had a pink-toed T last year who died Halloween 2003) but the goliath is a serious hair-kicker so I won't be doing much with him. I hope they don't have names (or at least crappy ones) so I can name them. Geez! I'm acting as though they will come when called! LOL!!!

I will definitely post pix!
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Lele, we all know you sit there with silkies in hand trying to train Luna to do tricks...so why wouldn't it be the same with this one just because it happens to be a huge man eating spider? LOL I'm kidding, obviously.

Well, I lurk some, but don't post often...try to read posts here and there. I get into trouble when I post...don'tcha know??? haha

I've become a dart frog freak too, instead of simply a cham freak. LOL

Take care
Kristen
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1.2 c. quadricornis
1.2 c.j. merumontanus
0.0.2 neonate c.j. merumontanus
1.1 r. brevicaudatus
0.0.2 red eared sliders

heck, yeah! I've got her jumping thur hoops of fire for those little guys! LOL!

I was looking in to dart frogs last year! I want them at some point - once school is finished and I have the time and $$ they are pricey!. I will come to you for advice - sort of like the old brevi days - seems so long ago now, huh? How are your brevi's? Did you ever get/hatch eggs? I don't recall the status of those two...
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Well, you are certainly welcome to ask for advice, but lets wait and see how I'm doing with them before I give any advice out...hahaha! I'm not one to open my big mouth when I'm not confident in my own abilities yet...hehehe.

I only have one R. Brev around now. Had a bad time awhile back...not quite sure what happened, and the cham vet here had not seen anything like it before. Long story....this one I've had since the beginning of last year, and she is happy as a clam all by herself.

Take care and good luck with your new critters!

Kristen
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1.2 c. quadricornis
1.2 c.j. merumontanus
0.0.2 neonate c.j. merumontanus
1.1 r. brevicaudatus
0.0.2 red eared sliders

scaaaaaaaaaaaaaary!!
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Raf

1.0 Jacksons baby
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Diego and Consuelo)
1.1 Adult Sulcattas (POOPIE and George)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY)
0.0.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis)
1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
1.1 3 toed turtles
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

still want to move to NH? - hey, did you notice our thread got pulled about keeping warm??? Can't believe someone found it that offensive ;/

>>scaaaaaaaaaaaaaary!!
>>-----
>>Raf
>>
>>1.0 Jacksons baby
>>1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
>>1.1 Bearded Dragons (Diego and Consuelo)
>>1.1 Adult Sulcattas (POOPIE and George)
>>0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
>>1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY)
>>0.0.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis)
>>1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
>>1.1 3 toed turtles
>>1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
>>0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
>>0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
>>Saltwater Fish and Inverts too
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Yes, I noticed they got pulled..some people just dont have a concept about reality and fantasy I guess. I didnt find anything offensive about that thread. Oh well....such is cyber life I guess.
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Raf

1.0 Jacksons baby
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Diego and Consuelo)
1.1 Adult Sulcattas (POOPIE and George)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY)
0.0.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis)
1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
1.1 3 toed turtles
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

Congratulations on your upcoming additions. I have a Rosehair. She's almost 4 years old & has a 6 inch leg span. She's big. I wanted a Goliath Birdeater, but decided against them. They can be really tricky to keep. Extremely high humidity.
Good luck to you & yours,
Cricket

I never wnated one b/c I didn't want to feed it mice - frozen or not). But the current owner only feeds him a pinkie every month or so - he'll have to do without all together if he wants to live here! He will have a nice variety of food. They are also serious hair-kickers so the gloves will come on anytime I have to go in to clean!
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Here's a question. Remember that this is coming from an non-shpidider loving individual. What is the facination with hairy shpididers? Why do so many peopls (women especially) keep Tarantulas? Personally, I am really anti-shpidider but I am curious about the trend of women and arachnids.
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Raf

1.0 Jacksons baby
1.1 Nosy Be's (Mars and Roja)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Diego and Consuelo)
1.1 Adult Sulcattas (POOPIE and George)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY)
0.0.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis)
1.0 Yellow Footed Tortoise (Alfred)
1.1 3 toed turtles
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

"because they're neat" is why i started keeping mine (i have 5 tarantellas) combined with a "i bet THIS will get me over my fear of spiders" it didnt really, i find htem slightly more fascinating, but you better beleive ill move before it gets too close too me.

really, it kind of goes under the same reasons people keep any exotic pet... alot of people are completely horrified of even chameleons you know.

Raf,

I don't know the ratio of women to men who own T's but for me it was sort of by accident. We have big barn spiders in the breezeway and a few years back I began tossing gypsy moth caterpillars and earwigs into the webs and watch her come down, wrap it in silk and cart it away for a late night snack or eat it on the spot. I became fascinated! I later adopted a little spider I found and didn't know what species it was (had not seen before), named her Stella (short for her genus: Steatoda ). I had her for about 6 months and right around the time she died I saw the very unhappy pink-toed tarantula at a PetCo and rescued her. I was very sad when she died. I was not looking for a taratula at the time but I was running some errands after a bad date...oh, wait - did that have anything to do with it?? and came upon her.

These two I am taking because they need a good home. I think the long and short of it, for me anyway, is that I find them fascinating! Insects (and kin) in general have cool lifecycles and the way they hunt their food is always interesting - just like chams

As for the big-hairy ones...the better to see those fangs and 8 eyes! Also you always know ehre they are - not so with the little quick ones!

or maybe it's in place of a big hairy guy! LOL

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Okay Raf,
You may as well admit defeat. You'll never figure out us females, anymore than we'll ever figure out you guys.
But I love my Rosehair Tarantula. My husband(who thinks he's macho), can easily be run out of the room when I get Rosie out of her cage. Yep, bathroom every time. Big man, harmless spider, and one happy woman. HeHeHe. It's so funny!
Cricket

Men can be such woosies

I just got back from visiting the two adoptees and the goliath is not as large as I thought - he has about a 5-6" leg span. One of the family members said he was a year and a half and another said 4 years. The rosehair is either 5-6 or 8-9 years old - haha! Who knows! The rosehair hasn't shed in all the years they have had her so I will assume it may be a female. The woman was devastated to learn they can live to 20 y.o.!

They have all the molts from the T. blondi so I will bring my book and a handlens with me when I go to pick them up to see if I can figure out his/her sex.

Cricket, what is your rosehair's name?

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Hey Lele,
Her name is Rosie. LOL My daughter says I'm cheap with names. I have so many reptiles, it's easier for me to remember their names when I name them similar to what they actually are. Example: My Brazilian Rainbow Boas, Brazi & Lian
MY Banana Phase Kingsnakes, Ban & Anna
My Egyptian Uro(likes to dig), Digger
This list could go on & on. Good luck with all your new additions.
Cricket

haha! I envy you in a way. I can spend a day or weeks to get a name right! As of a few years ago ALL my females have to end in the letter "a." I love the names you chose Brazi & Lian LOL!
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)