First time rasing baby Tarantula, Need advice

[Miss Bianca]

Got my T's today and they made the trip just fine. The B. smithi seems very active. As soon as I put him in his vial he checked it out and found his burrow pretty quick jumped right in and hung out most of the day in it. At about 8 pm he came back out and has been just hanging out on the surface getting used to his new home.

The G. pulchra on the other hand has not moved at all since I put him in his vial. He moved around alot while trying to tranport him to his new home from the damp paper towel to the vial (He just did not want to go in). He was on the towel and I put the towel in the vial and was gently nudging him on to the substrate but he just wanted to climb back up the paper towel. Finaly he walked onto the substrate but has not moved since.

Now I know this is the first day after his long trip but should I be concerned?
I know he's alive and unharmed, but he is just not as active as the B. smithi.
Im probably worrying over nothing right?

They will be fine, and Adam from Tarantulacages is a doll.
His specimens are always healthy and your Pulchra is probably just adjusting.
If anything's wrong I'm sure he'd make it right.
You'll come to notice that all Ts have their own little (or big) personality.
I am very excited for you, and you chose a wonderful way to start.
Both the Ts you got prefer dryer conditions so make sure you moisten only one
side of their little enclosures. Both also are rather moderate growers, but
In no time at all they'll grow and need to be transfered,
but they do well in vials for now.
Also, I think you'll soon be adding to your collection... just watch!
good luck with all! -B

 

[NinjaPirate]

The G. pulchra on the other hand has not moved at all since I put him in his vial. He moved around alot while trying to tranport him to his new home from the damp paper towel to the vial (He just did not want to go in).

I just got a pair of pulchra slings and they both behaved pretty much the same way. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[c'est ma]

Yup, there seem to be familiar patterns here. On the table next to our living room couch we've got a couple large terrariums set up that will hopefully be communal displays some day. (One for H. incei, the other for emperor scorpions.)

Very cool!

Martha Stewart has nothing on us.

Diane - any chance you'll be at the American Tarantula Conference this summer? My wife will be one of the speakers. You two could sit down and compare ways to inundate a house with spiders.

Wow, that just upped the attraction about ten-fold, and it was already pretty darn tempting. Will email you.

You'll come to notice that all Ts have their own little (or big) personality.

Isn't that the truth?!

Jeremy, congrats on the new arrivals!

 

[Jerm357]

Well I got both to eat yesterday so now I can finaly relax. The G. pulchra has snapped out of it and is moving around more. Ill get some pic's up as soon as I can.

 

[Fyreflye]

Well I got both to eat yesterday so now I can finaly relax. The G. pulchra has snapped out of it and is moving around more. Ill get some pic's up as soon as I can.

Glad to hear that they're eating! Very much looking forward to the pics, i'd like to see what their enclosures look like too. I JUST ordered my first T about 5 minutes ago, it's a very exciting time!

 

[dantediss]

looking through the tarantula handbook i found useful info for you.,be careful with the misting because at small sizes slings absorb water through their legs so be careful, and if a point comes where you only have large crickets, you can rip off their hind leg and offer that as food until you get small prey for them

 

[Bill S]

Martha Stewart has nothing on us.

OK. That reminds me of a story.

A friend of ours used to work for a company that makes museum-quality casts of skulls and skeletons, and his company would exhibit at the Tucson Gem, Fossil & Mineral Show each year. And each year we'd add a new piece to our collection. It started with a cast of a sabertooth skull found in the La Brea Tar Pits, and expanded from there. So... our living room contains a number of them. It also contains a few related items such as a tusk of a mammoth, found in the permafrost in Siberia.

Several years ago we were contacted by a German television crew that had been hired by a Russian company to do a special on people who studied, collected, or simply had an interest in Pleistoscene fossils and such. (The Russians we had purchased the tusk from were the ones who had hired the German crew.) Anyway - the crew wanted to film my wife and I "shopping" for a Pleistoscene item. We had been thinking of getting a cast of a cave bear skull from my friend - so we notified him and worked his company into the show. My wife was filmed picking out the skull and purchasing it. Then the next day the German crew came out to the house to film us unpacking the skull and setting it up for display.

(I need to mention here that our house is not especially traditional in its decor. I have one room set up for reptiles - at that time primarily venomous reptiles - and we're very casual about spiders living in the house. And there are more animals outdoors, including, at the time, a wolf.)

The "star" of the German production, a lovely woman named Ekatarina, stepped into our living room, looked slowly around, and said "What a novel idea - decorating with skulls!!" (Martha Stewart, eat your heart out.)

 

[Miss Bianca]

and if a point comes where you only have large crickets, you can rip off their hind leg and offer that as food until you get small prey for them

it's more like rip their head off... not their hind legs...
you can pre-kill for slings...

 

[WIZZYBEATZ]

I BIN TAKING OFF THERE HIND LEGS TO BUT THEN FEEDING THEM THE CRICKET . ITS BIN WORKING GREAT FOR ME WITH MY 4 SLINGS I HAVE NOW
1/4 INCH
1/2 INCH
2) 3/4 INCH T's
AFTER TRYING TO FIND FRESH PIN HEADS OR FRUITFLIES I GAVE UP AND JUST GOT A BOX OF THE small/med 24,count CRICKETS FROM PET SMART
CLIPED THERE HIND LEGS AND THE SMALL ONES WENT TO THE 1/4 & 1/2 INCH T's AND THE BIG ONES WENT TO THE 2) 3/4 INCH T's AND THEY BIN EATING THEM LIKE NOTHING ! :clap:

 

[wedge07]

I cut crickets in half and feed them to my tiny sling .75" and my B. smithi is 1.75" so he gets live food.

 

[Jerm357]

Im having no problems feeding my 1/2" and 3/4" sings live food. I have been offering 1 week old crickets and they love them. The 1/2" B. Smithi ate 1 today and the 3/4" G. Pulchra ate 2.

You guys were right about getting addicted. We are seariously thinking about getting an A. Versicolor and maybe something else a little bigger than the slings. Im thinking something around the 3" to 4" size to have fun with while the little ones grow. How rare are the Versicolors to find offline? Theres a reptile show coming up pretty soon real close to me that has a lot of T's, but Im wondering if these are hard to come by in the size I want. What do you think?

 

[wedge07]

I don't think you will have any problems finding versi's at all, though I am not sure what size you want.

 

[Jerm357]

I don't think you will have any problems finding versi's at all, though I am not sure what size you want.

Around the 3" to 4" size.

 

[wedge07]

I think you will have an easier time finding slings but I haven't been to a show in long time so you may be able to find what you want very easily.

 

[Ritzman]

I have never seen a versi at the show around here(Taylor Mi.), the size that you want. I'm not saying that nobody would have one, but you better get to the show early if you wanna chance.

 

[c'est ma]

OK. That reminds me of a story.

A friend of ours used to work for a company that makes museum-quality casts of skulls and skeletons, and his company would exhibit at the Tucson Gem, Fossil & Mineral Show each year. And each year we'd add a new piece to our collection. It started with a cast of a sabertooth skull found in the La Brea Tar Pits, and expanded from there. So... our living room contains a number of them. It also contains a few related items such as a tusk of a mammoth, found in the permafrost in Siberia.

Several years ago we were contacted by a German television crew that had been hired by a Russian company to do a special on people who studied, collected, or simply had an interest in Pleistoscene fossils and such. (The Russians we had purchased the tusk from were the ones who had hired the German crew.) Anyway - the crew wanted to film my wife and I "shopping" for a Pleistoscene item. We had been thinking of getting a cast of a cave bear skull from my friend - so we notified him and worked his company into the show. My wife was filmed picking out the skull and purchasing it. Then the next day the German crew came out to the house to film us unpacking the skull and setting it up for display.

(I need to mention here that our house is not especially traditional in its decor. I have one room set up for reptiles - at that time primarily venomous reptiles - and we're very casual about spiders living in the house. And there are more animals outdoors, including, at the time, a wolf.)

The "star" of the German production, a lovely woman named Ekatarina, stepped into our living room, looked slowly around, and said "What a novel idea - decorating with skulls!!" (Martha Stewart, eat your heart out.)

Bill, that's a super story! And a super decor theme ! After the spider book, your wife will have to make one of your house & artifacts--seriously! You two certainly lead an interesting life.



Jeremy--Even if you only find versi slings, I think you'd find that they grow much more rapidly than your other two. And they are such a gorgeous blue when they're the smallest...

I think you'd be fascinated by the contrast between it and your other two...(in other words, don't rule out a sling! )

 

[Jerm357]

I have never seen a versi at the show around here(Taylor Mi.), the size that you want. I'm not saying that nobody would have one, but you better get to the show early if you wanna chance.

Thats the show I was talking about. That sucks that you never saw a versi there because thats where I was planning to get one. I guess we will see what they will have this month, Im sure they will have something cool.

 

[Ritzman]

I have seen A. versi there, just not as big as your talking.
I got mine there, she was about 2 inches unsexed.

There is always some cool stuff there.

 

[wedge07]

I like raising them from slings. Its kind of cool to see them go through all the stages of their lives right before your eyes.

 

[Bill S]

I have never seen a versi at the show around here(Taylor Mi.), the size that you want. I'm not saying that nobody would have one, but you better get to the show early if you wanna chance.

If you know who the dealers are that will be at the show, you might try contacting them ahead of time and asking if they will be bringing the size and species you are looking for. Dealers generally do not bring their entire stock with them to a show - just the stuff that they expect will sell fastest. If they know there will be a customer looking for a specific animal, they are much more likely to bring it.