How was your first tarantula experience?

[Ah Lee]

It's interesting though, how many people seem to start off this hobby with some form of arachnophobia to actually having a hobby that is way out of control

Fascination and beauty aside, I think one of the perks of being a T keeper is how easy they are to look after, which is why nobody seems to stop at one!

 

[Shampain88]

It's interesting though, how many people seem to start off this hobby with some form of arachnophobia to actually having a hobby that is way out of control

Fascination and beauty aside, I think one of the perks of being a T keeper is how easy they are to look after, which is why nobody seems to stop at one!

I’ve still got it, Lasiodora youngsters been giving me the heeby jeebys since we first met...

 

[Two short legs]

It's interesting though, how many people seem to start off this hobby with some form of arachnophobia to actually having a hobby that is way out of control

Fascination and beauty aside, I think one of the perks of being a T keeper is how easy they are to look after, which is why nobody seems to stop at one!

When I was with an animal hallder it was already out of control!. And moving on to spider's it's easy.and that gets out of control!!

 

[Colorado Ts]

My first Tarantula experience was pretty good, I stuck with it for 9 years and found it interesting and enjoyable.

But this, my second, is awesome-a-licious...

 

[SpiderLadyLyle]

I got interested in spiders before I was even in kindergarten, and became obsessed with tarantulas in the first grade after seeing one at school. My parents said a firm no, but I spent the next several years asking, and got my first tarantula when I graduated highschool! It's been non-stop from there!

 

[fried rice]

My first experience was when I was really young, probably when I was 4-6 years old. I was somewhere and someone had a grammostola porteri. They let me hold it and ever since that day I wanted one.

 

[mantisfan101]

Not very good, I lost it and I am banned from keeping Ts until I live by myself

 

[Jess S]

First time I saw a tarantula in real life was at a friend of a friend's house, and I was horrified that someone would want to keep "that thing in their house", as I said back then.

I was after all severely arachnophobic.

After having my daughter, I realised I had to start dealing with spiders in the home and running out of rooms screaming for help and sealing up doors with tape until my partner got home, was no longer an option lol. I didn't want to pass on the fear to her. Her dad loves spiders though, which helps.

That got me into tarantulas and I'm obsessed with them now. You can never have too many T's in your life!

 

[Degreef Steve]

Hi. i just started this hobby past weekend. i was in a pet store and sawe a nice little gbb sling. I had intrests before this in spiders and could convince my wife to try and raise it to an adult.
So i decided to pick it up because i was imidiatly in love with it. it looked cute and it is a verry intresting species to me. First as it isnt one of the more easy species to keep for beginners and it is one of the more beatifull ones in my opinion.

So i went and bought the little bugger took al the neccesary things with me to give it a nice little home. first monday after the weekend i needed to go to the pet store again, for some crickets and stuff for my bearded dragons. and i knew there was one more sling of the same species. so i couldnt resist en bought the second also. now a few day's later i have to slings here wich are my very first tarantula's wich i now already love with al i got in me. the first i had i call it charlotte, is already webbing in it's enclosure and seems to like to sit on top of its hide i gave it. the other wich is called charlie likes to sit under its plastick leave's it got in its enclosure. So i think i just started a hobby that will explode in much more t's than i had ever imagined.

Included here is a picture of my two little love's .

Ps i also want to say sorry for my bad spelling. i'm not an native english speaker, but i try my best.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Okay, I'm gonna try to chronicle the whole tarantula keeping time-line, starting of course with the first. Keep in mind, that at the start, there were no internet options of obtaining such a pet that I am aware of.

I was at a small "Mom and Pop" type pet store. They dealt mainly in fish, but had a small back area in which they offered a few reptiles. I always took a look in there, when taking a look at fish.
One day, I noticed a large B. smithi (at the time, and of course I did not have any experience with the proper taxonomy) it was an adult specimen and quite the looker. And it was what I considered a fair price, $25. I eagerly bought it.
It took several of the questionable books available to get an idea of what I needed to do to care for my new awesome find, and I did fine with it, though my care was pretty atrocious by today's standards, I guess, But there was little info available. One of the things I was not aware of, was that if a tarantula matures to a male, its days are numbered. Naturally, as an adult, undoubtedly wild-collected spider, it did in fact moult out to being a male, which is often the case, probably.
My interest piqued, I went to the petstore I had gotten the smithi at, and inquired about one I had read about, something called "a Honduran Black Velvet". They said they would try to order me a specimen.
And looking back, I realize now was that I had gotten what was probably an Asian species. H. minax, maybe. It was aggressive, and a menace to society. It did not live long, as again, there was precious little info to be had, no forums to visit, and so I kept it like I did the smithi and rosea.

A few years later, a friend, knowing my interest in tarantulas, gave me a Rose-hair tarantula as a Christmas gift. It was a pretty big one as the species goes and I was delighted. It too moulted male eventually, however.

A few more years later, my sister who had been at the local chain pet-store in our area, told me they had a tarantula(s) for sale. I rushed out to take a look, and purchases another Rose Hair.
I had quite a bit more luck this time, it was apparently an adult female female and I had it seven years. At that point, I had discovered this site, but I mainly haunted the Watering Hole and did not initially post in the tarantula forums, although I visited them for info. I eventually began to post in those forums periodically, though I had little to offer apart from humourous comments. Some things never change.
While I was swimming in the Watering Hole, I connected with a regular member and became quite close to her. She visited me and we went on a herping trip together and discussed tarantulas at great length.
My birthday was approaching, and she decided to throw in with my nephew, and have some tarantulas shipped to me. The first choice she picked was an A, geniculate, as I had spoken often of my admiration for the species. The others, I believe she asked the vendor (Kelly Swift) to just pick a few with the funds her and my nephew were dividing, and suddenly, I went from a guy that had only kept individual specimens over time to the owner of 7 (including that female rose-hair. I now had 1 the A. geniculat, an E. campestratus, a G. pulchripes, a Columbia sp. "Pumpkin Patch, and a L. parahybana. I had never raised s'lings until this point and I was a little apprehensive, but also by that point I had read enough here to have a grip on the proper care, and was successful, with the exeption of a bad moult taking the A. genic, a juvenile at that point. All s'lings were raised past the "crucial point
The pumpkin Patch matured male and is gone, as well as the E. camp -who lived 2-1/2 years after its ultimate moult, but the B. smithi and the G. pulchripes are still growing and have yet to mature, so their gender is undetermined. The LP is a strapping female, and pretty big.

And that is my entire tarantula history, excluding recent new additions that I've already mentioned here.

Oh, except for one. After the Tragic Moult (tm) of that A. genic, a member here offered to replace it. I initially declined, but she insisted, saying that I was one of the first to make her feel welcome when she first arrived, and she wanted to help ease my disappointment, so I agreed. That genic lived to maturity. A male maturity and eventually went the way that they all do. My luck with my favourite species doesn't have such a great track record, so not too long ago, I decided to see what happens with A Nhandu chromatus, a similar in appearance tarantula. And I decided -as some of you are aware - to finally give a couple OW's a shot. C marshalli and C. darling. Plus, I recently purchases a Tiltocatl albopilosum, just because it was inexpensive and a staple in the hobby and an intriguing in appearance tarantula by it's own rights.

All of this can pretty much be attributed to my choice of joining this site, so I'm giving AB a tip of the hat, too. And this is all mostly drawn from memory, so time-frames, details, etc might be a bit inaccurate

Sheesh, I'm sorry this ran so long! I just kept typing.