benefits of owning tarantulas?

[Poec54]

Part of the reason I get up in the morning

That and the alarm clock.

 

[ErinM31]

That and the alarm clock.

That may wake me up but it ain't no motivation to get up and keep going

Taking care of living creatures, watching them grow and flourish, is good for my soul.

 

[Poec54]

That may wake me up but it ain't no motivation to get up and keep going.

Alright, alarm clock and paycheck. The combination will get you up and out of the house in the morning. If not, you won't be abele to afford many spiders.

 

[louise f]

Is it just me or did your avic draw a near perfect kangaroo head with its fecal matter?

hehe. yeah i see that now.

 

[louise f]

that is too sweet.

 

[louise f]

what a sweet text.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

what a sweet text.

 

[8Legs8Eyes]

I guess I am strange in my thought process because the immediate thing that popped into my head based on the title of this thread was "to help them reproduce and flourish." I didn't even think about me at first. I majorly enjoy mine of course, having no idea less than two years ago I'd already be up to 50 of the darned things. They are quite addictive and entertaining in each their own right, looking forward to breeding more of them in the near future.

 

[Andrea82]

+1 on the relaxation part. When ordinary life is hectic, I go up to my critter room to ground myself again. The routine of watering, feeding, checking really helps to get relieved of stress. Especially since they don't care about me being there or not. There are no demands, just simply....be.

 

[Lander9021]

So I get up for work at 4.30 am UK time get there for 5.30 and ive got the week off due to stocktakes ...so came back home and all the kids are awake my daughter's stood there pointing at my g.rosea enclosure shouting bi-der bi-der she loves her lol

 

[MikeC]

I find working with tarantulas cathartic.

My life is busy and stressful outside the house, it's nice and peaceful to come home to a room full of things that depend on me.

I'm also a massive insomniac, so I'm usually up to get the full benefit of watching the more active ones go about their business.

I'd always been fascinated by spiders, and various creepy crawlies in general. I was the kid in school who'd bring back orb weavers from recess, in a thermos I kept in my lunch bag. I think part of the attraction was the reactions I'd get from everybody else. I could never understand why anyone would be irrationally afraid of them, that's something I struggle with still today.

It's a rewarding experience getting to raise them from spiderlings to adults. I prefer to get all my new additions as spiderlings for that reason, though I'll occasionally buy adults for various projects.

Breeding tarantulas is an underrated facet of the hobby for a lot of folks newly introduced to it. I personally think it should be the end-goal for everyone.
There are many species available in the hobby with dwindling wild populations that I'm expecting in the coming decades/generations there will be several varieties only living in captivity. (Poecilotheria is the most likely candidate, based on what I've read.)
It should be the hobby's responsibility to keep these thriving, and I've taken that to heart.

 

[Yanose]

i say it is equal parts relaxation and I get to satisfy curiosity as i love watching them at their various activities even if it is just setting out some where. there is something quite zen about the process or taking care of your spiders i think it takes all of ones concentration thus blocking out the rest of the world for a moment while you interact with a big spider. I guess i used to keep all the cat spiders around my house well fed as a child too so may be it also keeps me in touch with my younger self. so a variety of things i get from the hobby

 

[gaomichael]

It is like stamp collecting for me. I'm kind of addicted to collecting them.

 

[Yanose]

It is like stamp collecting for me. I'm kind of addicted to collecting them.

gotta cach'em all and stuff eh

 

[Poec54]

gotta cach'em all

There was a time when it was possible for you to have pretty much all that was available in the country. But that ended over 20 years ago in the US when more unusual w/c's were coming in, and European breeders started exporting their CBB slings. There's probably several hundred species in the US now and it grows every year. By comparison, in the late 1970's, with connections, I was able to get about 15 species (all w/c), which was a huge collection for the time. There weren't many people in the US that had, or wanted, that many.

 

[johnny quango]

The benefits of keeping tarantulas for me are simple when I got back into the hobby 3 years ago life through a series of events had pushed me to the very edge, one night I was flicking around the Internet and a picture of a G rosea was present and it got me thinking about the tarantulas I'd had before and I thought I've cared for them before so why not again? So I bought a B emilia, G pulchra and a Gbb the rest is history.

Tarantulas are my meditation they keep me calm, content, patient and I guess more than anything they keep me smiling and happy

 

[Iska]

It fosters stewardship not only in myself but everyone I come in contact to and get to talk about my tarantulas with.
They are painted as something so awful in the media (along with snakes, reptiles, etc.) I feel its my duty to remove some of the negative connotations that surround them. They aren't "just a tarantula", they are important species that deserve the same respect, fascination, and consideration as any other species of invertebrate, vertebrate, or living thing in this world.

 

[Pociemon]

I get to keep one of the most amazing animal that exist, definately in my top 3. ! and 2(tiger and polar bear) are not a possibility because of the space problem other very obvious problems.

 

[Poec54]

It fosters stewardship not only in myself but everyone I come in contact to and get to talk about my tarantulas with.

Hard to believe, but they're not everyone's favorite topic. When you're talking to someone you just met about your tarantulas, do they slowly back away, and then suddenly run? Happens to me all the time.

There's some great things about the hobby today, with all the species and information available, and our animals finally getting attention from taxonomists, but one of the things that I really like to see is all the women in the hobby. And not just with Brachypelma, but keeping OW's too. The hobby was male-dominated for it's first few decades, and it's good that it's no longer that way.

 

[Sana]

I work in a theater here and I'm very close to my coworkers and bosses. We have a unique type of family environment going on. When I got my first tarantula I was so excited and shared pictures constantly. Everybody at work, even those that fear spiders, have come to regard my tarantulas as fascinating. We have a fair amount of down time some days where all the work is done and we are just waiting for the show to start. I'm often on AB and showing them pictures and sharing interesting tidbits. I recently brought in a container full of molts from various species so that a couple of girls that were afraid but intrigued could get a more intimate knowledge of the tarantulas that I keep. Watching my coworkers passing them around, exclaiming over this or that, asking questions about anatomy, and petting a super fuzzy avic molt was hilarious. I brought in my microscope the next day and set it up in our break area with the molts so that everyone could look at them more closely. It was quite the anatomy lesson and keeps me in practice with using proper terms for "abdomen", etc. A couple of weeks ago I ran down to the reptile store on my dinner break and came back with two 2i avics. I didn't have time to take my unplanned purchase home so they hung out in the break area for the evening with coworkers watching them in complete fascination. I was a little concerned I was going to catch heck from my boss for it, but when she walked in the room the first thing that she said was that they were adorable and she then proceeded to fret over whether or not the break area had a steady enough temperature for them as it has an external door, and if the poor little darlings were going to be too disturbed my the noise around them. It was classic. I have spent a lot of time earning a solid reputation with my coworkers for not teasing or being mean. I know exactly who in our building in truly arachnophobic and I am very careful to guard them from my spider molts and pictures. If I have a molt and an arachnophobic coworker in the building on the same day, I take special care to keep the molt in a place where the ones that are interested can look at it and make sure that the frightened coworker knows exactly where it is so that they can avoid it entirely rather then come across it sitting on the counter unexpectedly. I go as far as checking to make sure who would be bothered by a spider on touring crews so that they don't get an unfortunate surprise.