Hobby love thread

[SpookySpooder]

It's a toss up. Some people are more afraid of the snakes, some of the spiders, some of the feeder roaches.

Met someone who was deathly afraid of my cat.

 

[catboyeuthanasia]

I like learning a lot about a tarantula, and then getting to see one irl. It's like meeting a celebrity (I know so much about you, now you're here!)

 

[Spinnenfritzi]

Roaches disgust me to the extreme...

I would say it's at least touching the sphere of phobia.

That's why i will probably order some feeder roaches to finally get over it

 

[TechnoGeek]

I only enjoy large tarantulas that stay out and about most of the time and aren't insanely defensive or skittish.

As for the hobby, I love it cause it's easy! I know we talk about beginner friendly Ts all that time here, and I do agree that certain tarantulas are much easier to keep than others, but here's the kicker: there's no such a thing as a difficult T to keep if you're talking about pet keeping standards in general. A very easy dog or parrot is several orders of magnitude harder to keep than the most difficult T. Ts don't need to be tamed, housetrained, taken on a walk, given periodic vaccines, or taught to stop making noise. Ts cost astronomically less to feed than most commonly kept pets, and they don't need a crate, a bed, a harness, or dozens of toys that get destroyed and have to be replaced all the time.

This hobby is very rewarding and yet very easy at the same time, and that's extremely rare when it comes to pets.

 

[Cmac2111]

I just simply enjoy keeping them. No real rhyme or reason, just animals that have intrigued me since I was a kid and I absolutely find fascinating.

This for me as well! Sums up my own feelings on tarantula keeping perfectly!

 

[PanzoN88]

I love everything about the hobby, but one of the coolest parts of the hobby is watching the difference in behavior among individuals of the same species.

 

[Charliemum]

The floof, the colours, the patterns, the way they catch or don't catch their food, the digging, the webbing, moulting, but most of all I love the way they don't care, nothing seems to faze them, even a sound/vibration that makes them bolt is soon forgotten and they are back to doing whatever they were doing , no matter what happens in life they are still there doing their spoody thing, no words, no demands, just happy doing their thing whatever that thing happens to be.
The hobby side I love because of the connection, no matter where the keeper is from how long they've kept we all want the same thing and are happy to help others in anyway we can for the care of these amazing creatures.

 

[VoidKing72]

One of my favorite things is seeing people’s reactions when they hear I have tarantulas in my home! Then they always seem to imagine there’s just one big massive enclosure with all of them inside and then they get more confused when I say they all have their own home. It’s a simple thing that always amuses me.

Another thing I always love is looking back at how much they’ve grown over the years, especially ones I got as super tiny slings and are now full grown or mostly full grown. I keep all my spider pics organized by which specimen it is so I can see exactly what a spider looked like 2 years ago vs today, for example. Some feel like they’ve barely changed after a year (Grammostola, Brachypelma…) and some seem to become totally different spiders! It’s so fun to see their growth.

 

[SpookySpooder]

One of my favorite things is seeing people’s reactions when they hear I have tarantulas in my home! Then they always seem to imagine there’s just one big massive enclosure with all of them inside and then they get more confused when I say they all have their own home. It’s a simple thing that always amuses me.

Another thing I always love is looking back at how much they’ve grown over the years, especially ones I got as super tiny slings and are now full grown or mostly full grown. I keep all my spider pics organized by which specimen it is so I can see exactly what a spider looked like 2 years ago vs today, for example. Some feel like they’ve barely changed after a year (Grammostola, Brachypelma…) and some seem to become totally different spiders! It’s so fun to see their growth.

I would love to see a giant terrarium of giant spiders. Too bad it would never work out.

The only example I can think of is UrbanTarantula's giant M. Balfouri tank.

 

[Kodasea]

I love the laid back feel of keeping tarantulas—I’ve had various animals over the years, and these might be the most relaxing and meditative animals that I’ve had (we’ll see how I feel after settling in with the new P. irminia though).

So much of their maintenance is simple, and as someone who overthinks and worries a lot, it’s comforting knowing these animals really and truly don’t need me fussing over them. Like I loved keeping betta fish, but in comparison the water upkeep always felt like an uphill battle, and a balancing game where a mistake could be costly.

Also they’re feeding responses and hunting is super rad! Looking at them and seeing what they’re up to helps me reset after working for a while. I couldn’t say they have fully fledged personalities, but they do have interesting quirks that set them apart. The digging, the webbing, the way in which they react to their environment—all fascinating. It’s nice to sit and appreciate the “scary guys” of the animal kingdom, and realize why they’ve been so successful (and probably will continue to be after our time).

 

[Wolfram1]

I would love to see a giant terrarium of giant spiders. Too bad it would never work out.

The only example I can think of is UrbanTarantula's giant M. Balfouri tank.

i disagree, that is just for views, its not a proper way to keep them

 

[SpookySpooder]

I would love to see a giant terrarium of giant spiders. Too bad it would never work out.

The only example I can think of is UrbanTarantula's giant M. Balfouri tank.

Disagree with what?

I don't think that's the proper way to keep them. I just said he has a giant tank full of giant spiders.

Maybe it was the way I wrote it. Sorry if it was.

"The only giant tank of spiders I've seen is UrbanTarantula's M. Balfouri communal. But based on what I've read and seen I don't think that works."

Better?

 

[aprilmayjunebugs]

I love the fact there are so many to choose from so there's something for everybody. You can go at your own pace while learning all kinds of things you never thought you needed to know, and then it feels really good when you can pass that information on. I haven't intrigued anyone enough to run out and buy a spider yet, but if I contributed even just a little bit to their understanding of life's little creatures, that's what gives me warm fuzzies.

 

[slocoj91]

I get a tonne of joy just watching them exist. The individual natures, species tendencies, all amaze me. Love when I catch one grooming - though I'm sure they can tell when I'm looking, I've had moments where they pause and then slowly reposition as though they were just chilling, little buggers . And I love learning, which these guys seem happy to facilitate, or at least provide various rabbit holes I can delve into.

Even my stupidest, most foolish and somewhat selfish moment in making a huge mistake - trying to appease a 'friend' led to me not paying full attention to what I was doing - I used what I knew about tarantulas/spiders and managed to get the situation under control. Certainly not something I ever want to or intend to repeat, but it did at least reassure me that I was taking stuff in. Also taught an important lesson re said 'friend' ie that they weren't a good one

Tarantulas are so watchable Even my partners sister who's default is 'eww spiders' finds then fascinating once she's there with them. The first time she visited with my niece after I got my first tarantulas I had a minor incident - a box I'd gotten as an enclosure had a gap not visible on the product page. I'd thought the gap was too small, even by the carapace rule, but when the lid wasn't locked it shifted and got a bit bigger. Looked up to see my inch or so P sp machala on the side of the enclosure. Calmly requested my partner grab a catch cup, and grabbed an envelope from the table, only to find his sister staring wide eyed and trying to get a good picture with her phone, creeping closer. I had mentioned urticaria, but reiterated. She wanted a good picture for niece's show and tell, and I hadn't been confident enough to take lids off enclosures to let her get better shots. Clearly Pampho took matters into their own hands. Just sat there, and she let me get him away all very calmly once she had a pic. To be fair major movement was far away, so they didn't have much reason to bolt, but I was convinced she'd manage to get herself haired. Sorted the enclosure there and then, my logic had been that at least if they did get out it would likely be while I was watching and then I'd know - if it had gotten late without an escape I was going to cover the areas anyway even though it would mean dealing with that every time I opened/closed the container.

The calm involved in that situation seemed to really help overall though too, as she's now far more just interested and my niece hasnt been freaked out by spiders since. Now she just reassures her friends who is that they're more scared of her whatever she thinks and super fragile and don't want her for anything, they just want to live and eat and be happy.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

It's a toss up. Some people are more afraid of the snakes, some of the spiders, some of the feeder roaches.

Met someone who was deathly afraid of my cat.

Had a neighbor that was afraid of birds. Called me one day because there was a baby bird on his porch, & he couldn't leave his house...no joke.

Through the years, I've found most of my friends or family have a bigger issue with my snakes vs my tarantulas. That's just been my personal experience.

I read somewhere once that people find of snakes tend to be afraid of spiders, & people fond of spiders tend to be afraid of snakes. I think it was in a Reptiles magazine, but I could be mistaken.

 

[0viWan]

Ever since it got around in my social circle, that I have Ts (hot topic) every visitor wants to see the spiders. I don't like showing off my Ts to visitors...this might disturb the spiders

I guess you could call that love ^^

And yes...I am a recovered helicopter parent.

I always had a huge fascination for spiders, especially tarantulas. I love how every T is different and I also enjoy designing and setting up enclosures.

 

[Spinnenfritzi]

I don't like showing off my Ts to visitors...

Me neither, but for a different reason.
I dont like when they say that they look ugly or threatening. It feels a bit like they would judge my children ( which i have two actually).
I know it is nonsensical but it can't be helped.

 

[SpookySpooder]

I think it's perfectly valid to be wary of sharing your T's for fear of judgement. People are often quick to reject and discount what isn't in line with their subjective reality.

If the spider is a scary pest to them, they won't understand your feelings or interests on the subject. Better to leave these people in their comfy bubbles than to try to convince them to see things differently.

I'll only show people who are curious about them. You have to ask to see them. I don't care if you're interested in my interests at all so I don't push them on anybody. Same with any of my other pets and hobbies.

I had a visitor once who was an acquaintance of my friend. This person couldn't wrap their mind around how I could stack dozens of venomous creatures in my house and enjoy interacting with them. Their questions were loaded and from a frame of mind that was negative, not inquiring or curious. I could tell this individual was someone who just wanted to tell me my interests were weird and scary.

I told them, "This isn't Fear Factor, if you don't like spiders, don't look at or think about my spiders. I don't go into your home and tell you whatever you're doing is weird, and I bet you do all kinds of weird stuff"

To my great joy, they never came over again

 

[Wenzer]

The behaviors are probably the most enjoyable and fascinating part for me. Anything from common to uncommon, or even specifically/primarily common for just one, or a handful of species out of the 1000+ out there.

I could sit an watch mine for hours when they're out! And it's always a boost of serotonin whenever I manage to spot one out of hiding that is normally hidden, or when I find a new molt, or when I walk in and realize one of them has done some bulldozing and housekeeping... It's so fascinating, everything about them.

I've been reading about the medical science behind incorporating properties of different species' venom into things like muscle relaxers and pain blocking or pain relief drugs. I just read an article yesterday about how some species of tarantula have cytotoxins/necrotoxins in their venom, which I thought was very interesting, as I only knew about the neurotoxic properties before.

There's just so much to read and yet we really don't know all that much about tarantulas as of yet, it seems!