First Spider! [PICTURE]

[twas__brillig]

Hey all, some of you have helped me a great deal by answering many questions to my other thread.


I brought home my first Tarantula, which is a G. rose as some may know, suprised? No I doubt it. I know its a beginner one.


She is only 8 months old!

Is the cage/shoebox big enough

 

[desertdweller]

Your container looks just great! And what a beautiful rosea. I love the rocks in the water dish. For my T's I do the same, especially if they are sub-adult. Well done!

I LOVE your signature line!!!! ...and welcome to the addiction!

 

[twas__brillig]

Your container looks just great! And what a beautiful rosea. I love the rocks in the water dish. For my T's I do the same, especially if they are sub-adult. Well done!
I LOVE your signature line!!!! ...and welcome to the addiction!

Thanks! Man I feel like a loser. I'm stressing over the crickets now, how often do you feed the cricket? I pcked up three today.

And is it normal for my rose to be in its hide for more than an hour? When I first got her this morning she was outside of log all day but sitting one spot not moving.

And does it matter how big cricket is? Its about the same size as her abdomen

 

[Aurelia]

LOL your T is not 8 months old I can tell you that right now. Grammostolas grow VERY slowly and at that size I doubt yours is even under 10 years old.

Anyway, congrats on your first T!

You can feed her a couple of crickets about once a week. If you're feeding her big crickets you can crush their head with tweezers so they can't bite. She's still getting used to her surroundings so it's not suprising that she's in her hide. Just let her be, she's just fine. They can sit in one spot for hours or even days.

 

[twas__brillig]

LOL your T is not 8 months old I can tell you that right now. Grammostolas grow VERY slowly and at that size I doubt yours is even under 10 years old.

Anyway, congrats on your first T!

I swear it is! Its just looks big in image. I'll get one with it in my hand. Its really small!

 

[Thumb Master]

Something you should know about G. rosea is that they are flat out weird. If it is in its hide all day, all week, all month, dont worry about it. Thats just what they do. So far as eating is concerned, same thing with the hide. Sometimes they will eat for month. Then wont eat for 5 months. I offer mine food at least once a week though.

P.S. Your T is not 8 months old.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Its really small!

An 8 month old rosea would probably be about the size of your thumb.

You can go ahead and take the rocks out, or at least some of them. The spider isn't going to drown, and having a bowl full of rocks makes it pretty hard to get at the actual water.

 

[Thumb Master]

I swear it is! Its just looks big in image. I'll get one with it in my hand. Its really small!

Sorry mate.

At 8 months old that rosie would be about half the size of a dime.

 

[aracnochicken]

Your set up looks great .

Rosea's are known as "pet rocks" , they'll sit for days on end without moveing a muscle .Mine spends about 50% or its time in its hide and the other 50% on top of it

If I remember right I think you said it was about 3" , if thats right I would only give it 1 a week . That would be fine for it . Since they don't move much they don't use up much energy so they don't need to eat as much or as ofter .

As for the size , yeah about the size of her abdomen is a good size . I have 3 L. parahybana (brazilian salmon pink) about 3/4" and when I was putting a cricket in for one a cricket jumped in about the same size as my T , well before I could get the cricket out my T pounced on it and killed it . So abdomen sized crickets are a good rule to go by .T's are a lot deadlier then their prey (usually) and they can take care of a bit larger prey items , just make sure your T gets it and kills it before you leave a larger size cricket in on its own.

 

[twas__brillig]

Something you should know about G. rosea is that they are flat out weird. If it is in its hide all day, all week, all month, dont worry about it. Thats just what they do. So far as eating is concerned, same thing with the hide. Sometimes they will eat for month. Then wont eat for 5 months. I offer mine food at least once a week though.

P.S. Your T is not 8 months old.

I appreciate it! I dont know exact birth but its only an inch and a half big

breeder said it was 8 months to a year and half off

 

[Mushroom Spore]

I appreciate it! I dont know exact birth but its only an inch and a half big

How are you measuring the spider? Just the length of the body, or from which leg to which leg, etc? Because a 1.5" spiderling is pretty small to have adult fur and coloration like that, although I haven't raised any rosea.

What's more likely (and what usually happens in pet stores in the US) is that the rosea was wild-caught and the dealer just made up an age for whatever reason. Whenever we see a spider that the seller claims to be some bizarrely young age for its size/species, that's usually the case.

 

[scar is my t]

no offence but get a new t soon chilian rose hairs are to common it drives me crazy.:wall: but chilian rose hairs are pretty cute if you can go to the great insect fair in state college, pa.they sell tarantulas each year thats were i got my nhandu coloratovillosus

 

[von_z]

Everything looks good, but take some of the rocks out of the dish so there is enough open water for the T to drink.

 

[Aurelia]

no offence but get a new t soon chilian rose hairs are to common it drives me crazy.:wall: but chilian rose hairs are pretty cute if you can go to the great insect fair in state college, pa.they sell tarantulas each year thats were i got my nhandu coloratovillosus

who cares? to some people it's not about having a fancy, rare or expensive spider; they're just a fun pet to have.

 

[von_z]

who cares? to some people it's not about having a fancy, rare or expensive spider; they're just a fun pet to have.

I agree. What kind of comment was that to make to an excited new hobbyist?

 

[arrowhd]

Nice G. rosea. Grammostola are one of my favorite species. Your setup looks just fine. Welcome to the addiction.

 

[kyrga]

your T is not 8 months old I can tell you that right now

I agree. I have a rosea I got exactly one year ago this month. It was about 1" when I got it. A year later, it's reached a whopping 1.5"-1.75". That's measuring from the tip of the first leg to tip of last leg, while spider is in a relaxed, stretched out position. And it certainly doensn't have the beautiful coloration yours has.

Be happy it's more than 8 months old. Don't get me wrong, I love raising from a sling, but an 8 month rosea has a long way to go until it looks as nice as yours.

 

[jen650s]

no offence but get a new t soon chilian rose hairs are to common it drives me crazy.:wall: but chilian rose hairs are pretty cute if you can go to the great insect fair in state college, pa.they sell tarantulas each year thats were i got my nhandu coloratovillosus

No offense scar, but with about 50 Ts my G. roseas are still among my favs (and yes, I do have a N. coloratovillosus and it too is a great T, but that doesn't take anything away from my G. rosea).


Twas_Brillig,

enjoy your new friend, and don't let the nay sayers convince you that a G. rosea is anything less than a wonderful pet. They can be pet rocks or have a ton of personality, be vastly unpredictable, totally aggro or totally calm, or everything depending on the individual. Just because something is relatively common doesn't make it bad or uninteresting. Just having a T makes a person a little different from the rest because it's a pretty small population that can understand and embrace the fascination of having a miniature monster in their bedroom Oh, and yours is at least twice the size of my G. rosea sling that's about 18 months. However, I have a full grown female ~5 1/2" that's only 4 years old so they do grow at very different rates.

Once again, welcome and enjoy your new T.

 

[omni]

Hi and Welcome to the G. rosea club! Mine is active and my favorite T to watch. Keep the substrate dry and it'll settle in very nicely. Yeah, they don't get that really fuzzy look until they have a few years behind 'em. Real slow growing species, but they live a verrry long time.

Good luck w/ your T, may it be the first of many!

 

[DJThinK]

There's nothing wrong with starting out with a G. Rosea. They are excellent. Not my first, but my second, as well as my first adult. They do so great with handling, if you plan to handle, which I recommend for a G. Rosea. I know, its only for our benefit, but that's half the reason for the hobby, right?
-DJTHINK