My Tarantula shed her skin today

Originally posted by Miri08
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 Jake321


I've never handled a big spider before so I think I have to overcome that first

For some reason I keep thinking they move as fast and unpredictable as the small ones but the large ones seem much calmer. I need to get myself some first hand experience, literally

Thank you very much for all the replies, I hope no one is offended if I reply to you all via this one post, I work for myself and Im mega snowed under today

Apparently, Chillean Rose Spiders are the easiest spiders to keep as they like being handled. This is my 4th spider in 22 years, I've had another Rose one before, she lived about 5 yrs....a baby one that was weeks old and died after a few weeks, I also had a Goliath called Kurgan who lived 9 yrs. I've handled all of them, and Gwen doesnt mind being handled. It is a nice feeling, they walk slowly, not fast like House spiders, and it feels strange but nice, letting them walk up your arm. Kurgan used to sit on my shoulder. If you feel that their feet are starting to feel prickly on your skin, then it is time to put them away as they are likely to bite. I have never been bitten by any of my spiders, and neither has anyone else who has handled them, but Im told it is similar to a Bee sting.

I live in Yorkshire I keep her in the warmest room, shes been fine in there for 3+ yrs now. I feed her crickets, approx 2 ever fortnight...so it is not a problem if you are going away, however, they do need fresh water or at least water in their living space all the time. And the living space shouldnt be too huge, as they need to be able to find their food. You can also feed them Locust's but I do not like those at all and have never given them to Gwen.

It is worth mentioning, to be wary of keeping the crickets in their box and only into the spiders home, because if one of them is pregnant your home will soon be infested with the little blighters!

If you are thinking of getting a spider, I would read up on keeping them first, I have read more than once of people who have flipped the spider over when it is about to molt, as they thought it was dying..this is very bad, a spider molting should never be moved and this is one reason why I say to read up on it, because I have read this a lot of times. Also, if you think they are about to molt, get any crickets/food out of the tank as they'll eat her eyes etc as the exoskeleton is super soft for a few weeks afterwards...so don't feed for a while (hence reading up on this or I could be here forever adding bits to this! lol)

I don't mind house spiders, but Im not keen at all on garden spiders, and up until I was 12 I had the most terrible phobia of all spiders, where I would scream the house down if I saw one. One day i decided I wasnt going to be scared of them anymore, there was a large spider in my mums bedroom, and I kept going in to see it and saying hello to it. after a while, it didnt look so scary.

It was when I was about 20 ish that a friend of mine had Tarantula's and I really liked going round to see them.

I cant really advise on best places to buy them from, I usually make sure the same place sells their food (I have had problems getting fresh crickets in the past, so you need to make sure you can get them regularly), and I always think if the shopkeeper is friendly, and the place is clean and the animals all look well, then that is a good place to start.

ETA:- I forgot to say, they are mainly female as mentioned in one of my previous posts, as they tend to eat the males, and they can live for about 20 years. Gwen shed her skin exactly 3 yrs ago tomorrow, so it isnt very often (hence my excitement today!) and they are not a lot bigger, they dont double in size or anything, but I can see she is bigger, fluffier and a lot pinker (hence her breed, Chillean Rose)

She' cute. Do you ever let her out to roam the apt?

reply to post by Hillarie


Oh goodness no lol she would run under something and I'd never find her again..and not everyone in the rest of the family is as fond of her as I am

Originally posted by Wide-Eyes

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.

I don't know what you mean? The sun has been shining for at least 5 minutes today and we've only had a few inches of rain!

They're multiplying! Runnn!!