Moving into old world tarantulas.

[Vinny2915]

If you aren't inclusive to newcomers who will keep the hobby going after we all get out, or die...

 

[MantisRCool]

If u like arboreals and manage the P. irminia no problem, get a pokie. I’ve got a couple of them, I’m a begginner and they don’t give me any trouble. Get it as sling so u can watch it grow and get used to its behaviour. They grow very fast so soon u will have a very beautiful big spider Get long tweezers, give it a nice cork tube hide and don’t handle it

 

[Mini8leggedfreak]

Heterothele villosella And gabonensis are great little old world T’s. They are good eaters and look nice. My first two old worlds. And they’re fairly cheep, got mine for 10$ and 20$

 

[Whitelightning777]

M balfouri was my first OW T. Honestly, the hardest part is unboxing them. They're basically idiot proof. They go down into the burrow if you announce your presence.

P Striata was my 2nd OW. She's the most mentally balanced T I've got. Very calm, and my perfect little angel. The only thing I do special is move 5 times slower then normal. I always put the enclosure into a tote into the bathtub as a precaution but I can do maintenance with her in the cage. That's why they should have big ones in my opinion.

The main thing is to start with a sling and grow together.

 

[Viraniel]

A wise decision.



If you've had your P. irminia and T. gigas for a while and you're confident with them then you should already be pretty well prepared to take on a Pokie.

P. subfusca and P. regalis are generally considered to be good starter Pokies.



Ephebopus are fossorial as adults (some specimens behave arboreally as slings though) so they're generally considered as a stepping stone towards gearing up for Asian/African burrowing species.

Psalmopoeus/Tapinauchenius (which you already keep) are considered bridge species between NW and OW arboreals.

Ephebopus species are expensive everywhere, i think, especially E.murinus. A breeder told me it's because the eggs/ slings are very fragile and sacs have a high death rate.
If you wait til it's above 5°C at night on continental Europe, you could order from http://www.spidersworld.eu/en/
They often have E.murinus slings for reasonable prices, and ship to most European countries.

I agree with others in saying that a pokie is a decent starter OW. I would recommend a P. regalis. I jumped into OWs much sooner than you, and I started with pokies. The P. vittata in my avatar is unbelievably calm for an OW. She was probably an avic in a former life, and never got the memo

Be sure to share some photos of whichever one you end up getting

So my delivery finally arrived. For my first OW I went with P. Regalis, next ones will most likely be baboons. I have my eyes set on c. Darlingi and maybe an obt usambara.

 

[Kendricks]

Thank you for the reply, quite interesting, because I did see a lot of videos on youtube of OBT with a terrestial setup acting quite defensive. I didn't consider obt as my first old world primarly because of its bad reputation, I've heard a lot of people saying its agressive, very difficult to keep, can be very unpredictable. I will do some research again and see whats the story with them.

I fully agree with what @Chris LXXIX said.
P. murinus has a rather bad reputation but this is due to many idiots keeping them wrong. I made the same observations you did on YT. People post videos of totally defensive, threat-posing orange demons of hate.
I have one as well and she is my most calm one.
I also have a P. ornata (sling, though) and that little thing is the most feisty in my collection. Personally, I'd suggest an OBT over any Pokie any day as a starting OW.

I hope their reputation will one day shift, the constant OBT = aggressive child murderers is just wrong and annoying.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your OW!

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I hope their reputation will one day shift, the constant OBT = aggressive child murderers is just wrong and annoying.

Sadly, this will never happens because v

- easy to breed specie + (obviously) cheap as hell prices + (of course, due to the easy to breed part) almost a 24/7 X 365 availability + too much decades of 'horror stories' about the bugger + 'rapture' of lots of people to own such a 'killer' for prove something that no one asked or is interested at all = issues enough for not having, one day, sadly, the scenario you hope.

You may say that, with education or else etc sure, but good luck... we are living in 2018 (2018) and there's still folks that believe in the 'Flat Earth' so ih ih ih that's a bit hard

 

[Kendricks]

... we are living in 2018 (2018) and there's still folks that believe in the 'Flat Earth' so ih ih ih that's a bit hard

Don't even go there...

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Don't even go there...

Yup, that was only an example

 

[athlete96]

Yeah, I've noticed some of my Ts are growing a little faster since I put the heating on for winter, I'm keeping it at a constant 25C/77F at the moment.

Yours is roughly about the same size as my girl.

View media item 46210

Now, we all care for our Ts differently... and maybe I'm doing something wrong, but doesn't the T go IN a container?

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Now, we all care for our Ts differently... and maybe I'm doing something wrong, but doesn't the T go IN a container?

No, what kind of barbaric monster do you think I am?

And to think you've been keeping them wrong all this time

 

[Whitelightning777]

M balfouri was my first OW T. Honestly, the hardest part is unboxing them. They're basically idiot proof. They go down into the burrow if you announce your presence.

P Striata was my 2nd OW. She's the most mentally balanced T I've got. Very calm, and my perfect little angel. The only thing I do special is move 5 times slower then normal. I always put the enclosure into a tote into the bathtub as a precaution but I can do maintenance with her in the cage. That's why they should have big ones in my opinion.

The main thing is to start with a sling and grow together.

Update: it turns out that she is a he. Still, he's a wonderful little guy. I just cleaned up his web after he molted. He totally ignored me.



He's just wonderful, not really big enough for a breeding loan yet though. I'm estimating another 6 to 12 months, but not sure.

 

[cold blood]

He's just wonderful, not really big enough for a breeding loan yet though. I'm estimating another 6 to 12 months, but not sure.

Size has nothing to do with maturity...a male is mature only after its ultimate molt...when he has emboli. He will probably mature in the 5" range. But a male could mature at 4" (or less) or at over 6".

 

[Whitelightning777]

It's just predicting the timing which is the problem.

 

[cold blood]

It's just predicting the timing which is the problem.

It gets fairly predictabe with enough experience.

 

[Paiige]

Chiming in here to say that if you have done your research, and have a healthy respect for your animals, you can go for whatever makes you happy. All OW are fast, all OW have the capacity to be very defensive. If you are keeping them correctly, they will be much more manageable in general - but always have in your head that they could wake up on the wrong side of the bed on any given day. Don't get complacent. If you like terrestrials, get a Ceratogyrus. If you like arboreals, get whatever - keeping Psalmos can begin to prepare you but as long as you aren't cocky and realize that Psalmos are still "preparation" you will be okay. I've been keeping for 11 years now and have all the "preparatory" genera; Phormics, Psalmos, Ephebopus; I went ahead and got an S. calceatum as my first OW a few months back. I gauged her reactions in my LPS to her going into the container I brought her home in, and then once she was in that container I watched her closely and found that I felt comfortable. Not complacent, but comfortable. Previously during my keeping years the thought of OW Ts would get my heart racing and get my palms sweaty. I know it was time to cross the line when I did not have that reaction. Granted, I was extremely nervous and cautious during her rehouse but it went well and without complication.
I spent (spend) a lot of time watching videos on different species to get accustomed to speed and reactions and most of the videos are people poking their OWs and that's where a lot of the defensive behavior comes from...so honestly as long as you keep them correctly and don't poke them, you'll be okay