How do you sleep at night and other eye-rollers

[Mad Hatter]

Advice from a "fellow" T-keeper at Petco:

(This is a true story (unfortunately), I couldn't have made this up if I tried.)

While in line at Petco about 4-5 years ago, around when I first joined this site, I was getting crickets at Petco.

The girl in line in front of me asked me what I was feeding, and I replied "tarantulas."

Petco customer: "Really?! I used to have a tarantula!"

Me: "That's awesome!"

Petco customer: "Yes! I had him for a couple months. They really enjoy being taken for walks in the park. I used to put mine on a leash and walk it every Sunday, then one day it stepped on a pine needle and died. If you ever take yours for a walk, don't take it to a park that has pine trees."

Me: "Uh, I will keep that in mind."



I was trying so hard not to laugh, that was all I could manage to say.

 

[Exo]

(This is a true story (unfortunately), I couldn't have made this up if I tried.)

While in line at Petco about 4-5 years ago, around when I first joined this site, I was getting crickets at Petco.

The girl in line in front of me asked me what I was feeding, and I replied "tarantulas."

Petco customer: "Really?! I used to have a tarantula!"

Me: "That's awesome!"

Petco customer: "Yes! I had him for a couple months. They really enjoy being taken for walks in the park. I used to put mine on a leash and walk it every Sunday, then one day it stepped on a pine needle and died. If you ever take yours for a walk, don't take it to a park that has pine trees."

Me: "Uh, I will keep that in mind."



I was trying so hard not to laugh, that was all I could manage to say.

Where the heck do you get tarantula leashes?!? :?

 

[MissChelly]

(This is a true story (unfortunately), I couldn't have made this up if I tried.)

While in line at Petco about 4-5 years ago, around when I first joined this site, I was getting crickets at Petco.

The girl in line in front of me asked me what I was feeding, and I replied "tarantulas."

Petco customer: "Really?! I used to have a tarantula!"

Me: "That's awesome!"

Petco customer: "Yes! I had him for a couple months. They really enjoy being taken for walks in the park. I used to put mine on a leash and walk it every Sunday, then one day it stepped on a pine needle and died. If you ever take yours for a walk, don't take it to a park that has pine trees."

Me: "Uh, I will keep that in mind."



I was trying so hard not to laugh, that was all I could manage to say.

LMAO! The only way my brain can wrap around that is by thinking that customer must've thought a tarantula was something else... or has a weird way of joking... because... yeah... like Exo said, where the heck do you get tarantula leashes?! :? hahahaha.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Where the heck do you get tarantula leashes?!? :?

LMAO! The only way my brain can wrap around that is by thinking that customer must've thought a tarantula was something else... or has a weird way of joking... because... yeah... like Exo said, where the heck do you get tarantula leashes?! :? hahahaha.

I cringe to think of what she might've used as leash material. My only guess is string or thread or something similar... and how do you even put the leash on??? I mean... I sure hope for the T's sake that she was joking (or, like MissChelly said, that she thought I meant something else by "tarantula"), but she truly seemed earnest in conveying this bit of advice to me. And the 'fact' that she only had it for 2 months... poor T.

 

[Stopdroproll]

Not gonna lie, I used to think their venom was lethal 5-6 years ago when my friend got a G. rosea.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Not gonna lie, I used to think their venom was lethal 5-6 years ago when my friend got a G. rosea.

Everyone starts somewhere - I knew next to nothing when I first became interested in keeping T's. This site + the Tarantula Keeper's Guide provided me with almost all my current knowledge on T's. The rest came from personal experience raising them and observing their behaviors.

Also, I will add that the title of this thread is very well-suited, since "how do you sleep at night" is definitely the question I am asked most often when people find out that I keep T's.

 

[daleo8803]

i always get

WHY??? WHY would you keep one for a pet??!!

and

can they kill you??!!

people are so dumb.

dale

 

[violentblossom]

I like when people try to be know-it-alls, and tell me stories they've heard about people dying these disgusting tarantula induced deaths and I like when they try to describe this species that I absolutely MUST.STAY.AWAY.FROM!!!11!!one!

I'm like, "Erm, there's no such tarantula that follows that description."

*awkward silence*

 

[Tindalos]

they got a leash for tarantulas?
i have to get one
im not going to use it but
its a nice souvenir

 

[Shell]

Since I only just got my first T this past weekedn (a 2 inch G. pulchripes) I haven't had any weird questions YET. However Im (or I should say was up until tonight ) extremely arachnaphobic, so the first night I have to admit I was a laying in bed playing up horrific scenarios in my head lol However I realized pretty quick that 1. she isnt likely to escape and 2. she isn't out for blood!

I held her for the first time tonight and my fear is pretty much gone (at least of HER :clap: ) I was terrified but after I gave her back to my hubby I asked to hold her 2 more times! Anyways I can't wait for the day I get some of these questions lol

 

[Endagr8]

"What do you do with them?"

 

[Big Red TJ]

Can you train them or do they know you..

 

[GOMER113]

"Doesn't it bother you that your spiders are the only ones getting any action in your room?"

 

[pouchedrat]

I get a whole lot of "are they defanged?"

and one woman at work who talks about a tarantula her son brought home once that was "defanged" and she made him bring it back to the pet store cause she didn't want it in her house.. Then she told a story about a woman at her son's apartment who's "tarantulas got out and since they weren't defanged they had to spray the apartments".. ack..

 

[Teal]

I am ALWAYS getting... "Do you keep them together?"

Followed by, simply.. "You're crazy!"

At which point I respond... "Wait... you're just NOW figuring that out?" lol

 

[ShadowOde]

I've gotten the defanged question a lot too. I had a small party and the first thing my friend asks me is if it's defanged. When I replied "No, how else would the poor thing eat otherwise," she proceeded to give me a lecture on the reasonings behind defanging and why I should get it done. It was very eye roll inducing.

Of course, my male friends are always telling me to fight them, but I'm almost certain now they do it as a joke.

 

[WelshTan]

i get the "do they bite" and "are they de-fanged" a lot but the one that really gets to me is "why don't you spend your money on proper pets instead of stupid insects" .......

Tsk ..... I don't even bother to answer that one.... I just walk away in disgust tbh

 

[Mina]

For some reason people always assume the all of my Ts have free range in my home. I have no idea why. I also get the "how can you sleep" question, to which I reply, "Actually I sleep very well, I have tarantulas, snakes, scorpions and pit bulls in my bedroom, no one in their right mind would bother me."

 

[Mad Hatter]

I also get the "how can you sleep" question, to which I reply, "Actually I sleep very well, I have tarantulas, snakes, scorpions and pit bulls in my bedroom, no one in their right mind would bother me."

Touche! What a great response to that question!

LOL - That is so funny Mina!

 

[Mack&Cass]

When we made the jump and spent $150 on a P. metallica, a coworker of mine was like "You spent $150 on something that I would step on?". I remember talking to a friend of my grandmother's who held a rosea at a science centre and she was like "it was defanged of course, they wouldn't let people hold it otherwise". I considered telling her it wouldn't have been defanged, but she was old so I let her go on believing it.

And Mina, that's hilarious. I'm gonna have to steal that one, haha.

-Cass