First Tarantula

[Stan Schultz]

Bummer! I'd love to be a full-timer when I retire, but my wife won't go for it. Thankfully I've got the better part of four decades to try to convince her. ...

Living the life of a vagabond isn't for everybody. It means driving hours on end. And, living in the confines of a cracker box with your one-and-only 24/7 drives some people to distraction. Trying to do so could be among the worst choices of your life.

However, to find out what it's like, start taking extended vacations every year. Stay in hotels or motels the first year. Or, tent camp. After a year or two, rent a small, Class C motorhome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreational_vehicle) for two weeks. Gradually graduate to larger and more serious rental RVs as time goes by. If and when it gets to the point where you or your spouse begin to dread the annual migration you know the vagabond's life is not for you.

If, after several years, you still look forward to escaping to the open road once a year, maybe "the life" is for you after all!

... I'd probably stay in the States for the most part, don't really know anyone in Canada. ...

It's a vast country. There are over 34 million people in Canada, and it's land surface is greater than the USA (3.85 million square miles against 3.79 million for the USA). There's as much or more to see up here than there is in the USA, and failing to see at least the high points when you're living right next door is a real shame.

... I wonder how T's acclimate to the vibrations caused by constant movement.

This is not the first time this point has been made. There is a lady (and her spouse) on the ATS forum (actually one of the moderators) who goes by the login of jdolb1 and with the sig of June (aka JB) and The Roving Tarantula Troop who lives in a motorhome, travels an annual migration between Oregon and tarantula territory in Arizona and other southwestern states, and keeps quite a number of tarantulas in her RV as she travels. She reports few or no problems with her spiders.

To learn more about June go to the ATS forum (http://atshq.org/boards/viewforum.php?f=3), click the Search link, and look for postings by her.

Enjoy your migratory tarantula!

 

[jebbewocky]

Well, I suppose I don't know many people west of the Mississippi, or south of the Mason Dixon line either (aside from internet acquantainces), and I've always wanted to see Saskatchewan, since my grandpa (also a Schultz actually!) was from there. And I might end up Canadian eventually anyway, just because of politics, lol.

I think I'll have to see Canada after all!

and maybe Mexico, depending on how things are going then.

I'll have to read up on jdolb1.

The worst part is I used to take calls for insuring motorhomes. I felt a little twinge of envy every time I did a quote. Motorcycles where worse. Now I take calls for houses, and I don't really want a house at this time.

 

[sayingmahalo]

Hello everyone. Like Ninja12 (OP) I've also recently bought my first tarantula, and I also decided on a Chilean rose as a starter species.

I bought and prepared an enclosure well before I got the spider, making sure I sorted out the substrate (3-4 inches from the bottom of the container and not too moist), the drinking bowl, a heating mat (placed on one of the walls to allow for approx. half of the enclosure to be heated), a temperature and humidity sensor, and of course a small hidey-hole for my spider to retire to during the day (a plant pot that's been split in two, just a little bigger than the spider itself).

Something doesn't seem right, though. I transferred it - I say 'it' rather than 'he/she' because I haven't determined the sex just yet - to its enclosure yesterday around 6pm, and it has seemed really, really stressed ever since. It's not really feeding or drinking, and movement-wise, all I've seen it do is try to climb the walls of the enclosure, then just cling to one of the top corners.

So I guess I'm trying to say that my Chilean rose doesn't seem to have gotten accustomed to its new surroundings just yet, and I am getting worried as a result. Last night was quite cold, so I found it clinging to the bit of wall where the heat mat had been set up.

Any idea if that's normal, and if it'll settle down? I've been told that tarantulas are quite territorial, but mine doesn't even seem particularly interested in exploring the place, let alone making the enclosure it's own. Am I worrying over nothing here?

Thanks.

 

[sayingmahalo]

Oh, and here's a pic of what Charlie has been doing all day - I settled on Charlie because I reckon it works equally well as a male or female name...

I also turned the heat mat on its side, hoping to discourage the climbing behaviour by having the heat source closer to the ground. Clearly not that great an idea.

 

[Stan Schultz]

Hello everyone. Like Ninja12 (OP) I've also recently bought my first tarantula, and I also decided on a Chilean rose as a starter species. ...

First, "Welcome to the hobby!"

And, "Welcome to these forums!"

First, you need to read Stan's Rant at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html. Be especially certain to read the four books that are mentioned. Note that you needn't go out and buy them. Your friendly, neighborhood, public library probably has one or two already on its shelves, and they can get the others for you through the Interlibrary Loan System. It's a lot of reading, but you can space them out over the next few months.

Then, you need to read CARE AND HUSBANDRY OF THE CHILEAN ROSE TARANTULA at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html.

Lastly, has anyone told you of the tarantula enthusiast's lament?

LIKE THOSE POTATO CHIPS, YOU CAN'T HAVE JUST ONE!

You've been warned!

... I bought and prepared an enclosure well before I got the spider, making sure I sorted out the substrate (3-4 inches from the bottom of the container and not too moist), the drinking bowl, a heating mat (placed on one of the walls to allow for approx. half of the enclosure to be heated), a temperature and humidity sensor, and of course a small hidey-hole for my spider to retire to during the day (a plant pot that's been split in two, just a little bigger than the spider itself). ...

No, no, no! No moist substrate. No heat mat. No temperature/humidity sensors. Simple is better.

... Something doesn't seem right, though. I transferred it ...

So I guess I'm trying to say that my Chilean rose doesn't seem to have gotten accustomed to its new surroundings just yet, and I am getting worried as a result. Last night was quite cold, so I found it clinging to the bit of wall where the heat mat had been set up. ...

First, almost all tarantulas, arboreal and terrestrial, live in an almost completely vertical environment: the wall of their burrow, the side of a tree trunk, etc. Horizontal is as foreign to them as vertical is to you. It is perfectly normal for a newly captured tarantula to hang from the side of its cage. If it immediately took up residence on the flat, horizontal cage floor, we'd suspect something might be wrong. If it's still hanging from the cage walls in ten days or two weeks, get back to us.

And, your tarantula was dug out of its nice comfy burrow someplace in Chile that it had dug for itself and had been living in for years; thrown into some sort of strange, filthy container; jostled and thrown around for days to weeks; flown not only to a foreign country but to a foreign hemisphere; jailed in some sort of bizarre caging arrangement with too much light, no place to hide, a filthy cotton wad in a water dish (what the Sam H**l IS a water dish, anyway?), with strange shapes moving around, weird noises, and a really disgusting stink; repackaged in a plastic deli cup or a small cardboard box; jostled and thrown around on the way to your home; thrown into yet another bizarre caging arrangement with too much light, but this time a place to hide, with hopefully no filthy cotton wad in a water dish, with strange shapes moving around, weird noises, but maybe not so bad a smell; and expected to act NORMAL!

The surprising thing is that they really do act sort of normal, even after all that abuse.

After you dry out that cage and give the spider a chance to come to terms with its alien abduction, it'll settle down and live a long happy life under the care of that huge, ugly, bumbling, clumsy God-thing.

Further comments:

1) Chilean roses are desert creatures. Keeping them on damp substrate is a lot like making you sleep in a wet bed. Don't keep it on damp substrate.

Don't mist or spray the cage with water. If you have any doubts about the humidity of your rose's cage, cover the open part of the cage with plastic food wrap and keep the water dish full.

2) Chilean roses originate in the Atacama Desert in Chile. On a hot summer afternoon the air temperature can reach 122 F (50 C) or even higher, and may drop below freezing on a cold winter's night. While their burrow temperature doesn't reach those extremes, they still are accustomed to wide fluctuations in temperature and have evolved to thrive in them.

And, all tarantulas are poikilotherms, i.e., cold blooded. They come from the factory with a built-in ability to operate well in a wide range of temperatures. So called "warm blooded" species like humans cannot tolerate anywhere near so wide a range of temperatures. If our body temperature drops or rises more than a very few degrees from about 98.6 F (37 C) we get into BIG trouble and often die. As a result, as a survival strategy, we feel "too cold" or "too hot" much more quickly than a tarantula.

The basic rule of thumb is that your tarantula will do just fine at just about any temperature you feel comfortable at.

There's lots more to learn about these incredible creatures. Not only are tarantulas in general unexpectedly unconventional, but Chilean roses seem to be even more weird than so-called "normal" tarantulas.

I would suggest that you learn to use the Search utility available in the gray bar across the top of this page to learn more about these fantastic creatures. Choose your search strings wisely. Put on another pot of coffee or make sure you have plenty of your other favorite beverage in stock. Clear your schedule. Hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door. You have a lot of reading to do.

In the meantime, enjoy your little 8-legged wonder!

 

[sayingmahalo]

Thanks, I wasn't expecting such a quick reply

I certainly wasn't thinking about it from the spider's perspective...and from the sound of things, I've been putting too much faith in the pet shop's own tarantula care sheet.

I've read both of the articles you pointed to, and I guess I'll just be patient and wait for it to come down on its own. Meanwhile, I'll get some more reading done.

Thanks very much for your help Pikaia.

 

[jebbewocky]

G.rosea is a desert creature, like a Fedaykin, or Shay-tan.