My Tarantula shed her skin today

Hi there,
I just wanted to share this wonderful photo I took (well, I think it is wonderful). The first photo is my Chillean Rose Tarantula after she has shed her skin, I had to downgrade the res to upload onto ATS.

The second photo I had to quickly take with my mobile phone as she was emerging, sorry for the bad quality! When I looked in the cage this morning, I thought that there was 3 spiders in there...and it took a few seconds to register she has shed her skin again!

I adore how they look like a brand new spider afterwards, all fluffy and bright.

This is the 2nd time she has shed her skin in 3 years now, she has been with me 4 years. I call her Gwen

I know not everyone agrees that Tarantula's should be kept as pets, but then I guess you could say that about a lot of little animals such as Mice, Rats etc. Anyways, I've been keeping them since 1989, I love all sorts of animals but always been fascinated with spiders. It cheered up my day so I thought I would share

That nearly made me shed my skin looking at that. Cool and sickly. Don't they live for 15 years?

A pretty cool video of a Brachypelma vagans molting.

reply to post by Urbanshadow


Fuzzy fuzzy spider.

Wouldn't it be interesting if people molted like that?

S+F!

reply to post by Samuelis


Hehe sorry

Thank you for that video, wow! Wish I could catch Gwen in action. Last time she moulted she was laying on her back for 2 days, but this time she was just normal way up so I didnt even think twice...should have spotted it coming really as her back was getting patchy last week

ETA they can live for up to 20 yrs, mostly they are females as they would have eaten the males...

reply to post by Druscilla


It certainly would be interesting!

And cheaper than going for dermabrasion

reply to post by Urbanshadow


Forgiven

How good it would be to be able shed your skin? Would I be right in assuming you collect the dead skin and use it to make a spiderwomen suit?

reply to post by Samuelis


Ahahhhaa!! now both of those ideas would be cool, especially a spiderwoman suit made from spiders exoskeletons!! Actually this skin is pretty naff, its all curled up which is a shame...the last one I hung in the window for Halloween

I'm not going to let my wife see that thing, she freaks out over a house spider, even over a daddy longlegs. Anytime i hear her scream i know what she found and what she wants me to do to it.

D'aww she's pretty!

I like spiders.... at a distance! LOL. I can't really say much though because I used to have pet rats and people liked to freak out over them sometimes too

I heard the rose tarantulas are fairly docile but I might be remembering wrong. We sometimes get tarantulas that make their way into our apartment from the outside, whatever kind those are, they will chase you lol.

I've been looking into getting a decent sized pet spider myself! Are they hard to keep? I travel abroad rather frequently, 5-7 times a year, only for 1-2 weeks at a time.

The only thing stopping me from having a pet like that is having to handle it. I think spiders are freakin' awesome and really interesting but at the same time they freak me out. Having a spider on my hand the size of my face would make me tremble a little bit

Originally posted by Miri08
D'aww she's pretty!

I like spiders.... at a distance! LOL. I can't really say much though because I used to have pet rats and people liked to freak out over them sometimes too

I heard the rose tarantulas are fairly docile but I might be remembering wrong. We sometimes get tarantulas that make their way into our apartment from the outside, whatever kind those are, they will chase you lol.

lol? They chase you? WTF?

I can just hear the majority of people on the Got a phobia? thread scurrying for high ground.

A friend of mine lost a similar tarantula in a 7,000 sq. ft. house. They searched and searched, but never found it. I confess that I had a hard time staying the night over there after that.

We should all learn to overcome our fears so that we can appreciate the divine fluffiness.

reply to post by Wide-Eyes


I kid you not LOL. I was doing dishes one day, I look up and there's one of them on the corner of one of the cupboards, it surprised me so I jumped away and it literally chased me. I don't know who was more shocked, spider or me but all that was missing was horror movie music LOL.

reply to post by Urbanshadow


Fully paid member of the Arachnaphobes here. God knows why i clicked on this link! I'm now sat here looking very suspiciously into any dark spaces looking for things that aren't native to the UK! Bloody phobias...........

When i was teaching i once took some kids (sorry, pupils) to a science fair. I had to eat crickets, hold giant cockroaches etc. No problem. Would i hell as like hold the Rose tarantula though! Much to the amusement of the kids and creepy crawly guy.........he kept saying they are the friendliest type of spider and not a problem.

So cool I have always been interested in adding one or two spiders to my
zoo ( koi pond with 12 large koi ..6 birds.. 3-75 gallon tanks with a mix of ciclids and a alligator gar and a beautiful 14 yr old husky) I have always been in love with spiders are they hard to care for?
Very hard to find them in my neck of the woods I wish they had more exotic pet stores around my area I have to
order everything online for my pet needs.
Do they shed and get larger? Are you able to handle your spider? Best of luck with that beauty!!!

reply to post by Miri08


Where do you live. I'll have that section on the "to glass" list when I gain control over the planet.

Tarantulas in apartments? Are you kidding me?

Funny story, I bought a 7 legged tarantula about 20 years ago. I got it at half price since it was missing a leg. About a month after buying it, it shed it’s skin and had regenerated it’s eighth leg back. It was a great pet for many years!

reply to post by Swizzy


They are easy to care for and a blast to handle. Trust me you get used to it, soon holding it is no different than say a pet gerbil? Mine was a rosehair and was tame. Some breeds may not be, so some reseach might be needed.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


South Central Florida, once you take over the planet, please do give me warning lol.
From what I understand the tarantula is originally from Mexico but now is settled here. We have some huge native spiders too but aren't actually tarantulas not to mention huge palmetto bugs!

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by Urbanshadow

 

Fully paid member of the Arachnaphobes here. God knows why i clicked on this link! I'm now sat here looking very suspiciously into any dark spaces looking for things that aren't native to the UK! Bloody phobias...........

When i was teaching i once took some kids (sorry, pupils) to a science fair. I had to eat crickets, hold giant cockroaches etc. No problem. Would i hell as like hold the Rose tarantula though! Much to the amusement of the kids and creepy crawly guy.........he kept saying they are the friendliest type of spider and not a problem.

Trust me, a non-native spider wouldn't last 5 minutes in Yorkshire. The wind and rain would probably finish it off quite quickly if a sheep didn't stomp on it first.