BenjaminBoa
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2011
- Messages
- 117
I got my first pokie yesterday, a sub adult p. metallica with a small arboreal cage from Tarantulacages.com for 200 dollars. He's about six inches across, named him Shmoopie.
So when I got home the cage has an old shed and a few bolus on the ground so.. being that I spent 200 on him I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to die on me, I also wanted the cage set up my way. So I captured him, which took almost no effort on my part, just poked him in the butt with a paintbrush and he ran right into the capture jar. I scrubbed the tank really well and put some crushed ceramic on the bottom with shredded peat + coconut coir bedding with a cork bark tube in the middle and a little pothos.
When I went to put him back in his tank he showed off his speed by darting into the tank and then before I could even pull the jar away back up the jar and over my hand, I jumped a little and pulled my hand away (not expecting him to go from calm to that crazy in a second) Shmoopie took that as an opportunity to escape and I ended up chasing him across the basement before catching him again. I put the capture jar in a dark closet for five minutes which calmed him down and then I got him into his tank.
The next day I saw the humidity gauge was too close to the vent and was probably not registering the proper humidity, With him sitting right next to it I pushed the gauge down a few inches, he freaked out and ran down to the bottom of the tank.. right then the suction cup detaches and the thing lands on him. I take it off of him and see a piece of shred peat, but under the lighting it looks like a broken leg. Despite knowing hes more durable than to be damaged by a light little humidity gauge I get paranoid and poke him to get him to move so I can get a better look at his leg, it wasn't his leg. Mind you he was backed into a corner when I poked him.
Even after all of that he was being shy, my haplopelma would have bit me right away, my GBB would have struck at me and threw hairs by that point, my both of my Avics would have probably freaked out too...
I don't get why people think their so bad, after that experience I'm less nervous around him than I am my GBB, hes sooooo shy, I swear if you look at him the wrong way he'll run away.
I don't know if other pokies are more aggressive, but other than the speed and size I feel like these guys are lower risk than some T's considered "starter" T's like a GBB lol.
Course this is just ONE pokie, not really enough experience to mean anything statistically but thats just my experience.
So when I got home the cage has an old shed and a few bolus on the ground so.. being that I spent 200 on him I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to die on me, I also wanted the cage set up my way. So I captured him, which took almost no effort on my part, just poked him in the butt with a paintbrush and he ran right into the capture jar. I scrubbed the tank really well and put some crushed ceramic on the bottom with shredded peat + coconut coir bedding with a cork bark tube in the middle and a little pothos.
When I went to put him back in his tank he showed off his speed by darting into the tank and then before I could even pull the jar away back up the jar and over my hand, I jumped a little and pulled my hand away (not expecting him to go from calm to that crazy in a second) Shmoopie took that as an opportunity to escape and I ended up chasing him across the basement before catching him again. I put the capture jar in a dark closet for five minutes which calmed him down and then I got him into his tank.
The next day I saw the humidity gauge was too close to the vent and was probably not registering the proper humidity, With him sitting right next to it I pushed the gauge down a few inches, he freaked out and ran down to the bottom of the tank.. right then the suction cup detaches and the thing lands on him. I take it off of him and see a piece of shred peat, but under the lighting it looks like a broken leg. Despite knowing hes more durable than to be damaged by a light little humidity gauge I get paranoid and poke him to get him to move so I can get a better look at his leg, it wasn't his leg. Mind you he was backed into a corner when I poked him.
Even after all of that he was being shy, my haplopelma would have bit me right away, my GBB would have struck at me and threw hairs by that point, my both of my Avics would have probably freaked out too...
I don't get why people think their so bad, after that experience I'm less nervous around him than I am my GBB, hes sooooo shy, I swear if you look at him the wrong way he'll run away.
I don't know if other pokies are more aggressive, but other than the speed and size I feel like these guys are lower risk than some T's considered "starter" T's like a GBB lol.
Course this is just ONE pokie, not really enough experience to mean anything statistically but thats just my experience.
