How were you introduced to Tarantulas?

Roland Slinger

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Aug 17, 2009
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Just curious how others found out that they can be cool pets!

For me, I sometimes check Digg for cool stuff and one time someone posted a picture of a T molt. I was so shocked, it was really sooo cool to me. Here is the picture: http://digg.com/pets_animals/What_s_Left_Behind_After_a_Tarantula_Sheds_its_Skin

After reading the comments I saw someone said that they're cool pets. Up to that point I had NO IDEA anyone would even think keeping one as a pet, I even doubted its legality. I used to think they were something like lions, you can't really keep one and they're too dangerous to be kept in a home.

I then did some research online and it fascinated me so I decided to get one ;P

What about you?
 

MutedUziel

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Mar 15, 2009
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Facing my greatest fear!!!

I was afraid of spiders :8o so one day I figured what better way to get over it.
I read every thing I could find on T's till i finally felt i was ready. I got my first T ( G. rosea ) and it was love at first handle. I now have 22 in under 4 months.
What a start! {D
 

Tcollector

Arachnobaron
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Sep 3, 2007
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I was 12 years old when I seen my first tarantula lol. They had a tarantula/invert store in the mall that sold nothing but tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes, etc. I thought the tarantulas was the coolest thing but my parents would not let me keep one at the time because they were not educated about them at that time. Then finally 5 years later I finally got a couple:D
 

PrimalTaunt

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Jul 28, 2009
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Somebody brought a tarantula and other exotic pets to my class when I was in preschool and I've been interested in them ever since. However, my parents never allowed me to have any when I lived in their house and didn't want to risk having one in college dorms so it was years before I finally got one this spring. (FYI - I'm 22 now.) To those of you who are still kids/young adults and have parents who indulge you - consider yourself lucky.
 

Roski

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When I was but a wee lass, I was trapped in a burning building. I couldn't see the exits for all the smoke, and hopelessness clutched at me as my body struggled for weak, wheezing breaths. Suddenly, a Rosie swung in on its web. She hoisted me up on her palps and carried me outside, kicking down doors and narrowly avoiding falling columns all the way. We made it out to the cheering crowd of spectators moments before the roof collapsed. "I'll never forget you," I said. "Wait, you're not a cricket!" She replied, and promptly stalked off. I watched her go, with tears in my eyes and urticating hairs all over my itchy body, solemnly swearing to devote my remaining life to T's in repayment of this debt.

Seriously, I don't know. I loved spiders for as long as I remember, but had too many sad experiences with losing old, dying pets. Once I learned that some female Ts can live longer than most dogs, it was only a matter of finding a local breeder :)

EDIT: Oh, and handling my first T at the Ento dept of my uni helped, too
 
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Big Red TJ

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Dec 10, 2007
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My first experience with Tarantulas was when I was in school my kindergarden teacher had a B. Smithi. She was the class pet and I was hooked ever sense...Matt
 

Bill S

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We're starting to get into ancient history here - but I do remember my first tarantula. Summer of 1959. My family had relocated from Massachusetts to California (near Santa Barbara). My father was driving down the road and suddenly stopped the car - the biggest spider he had ever seen was crossing the road in front of us, and he couldn't believe spiders could get that big. From there I don't remember the details of how it ended up in a gallon jar, but we took it home and kept it for a short while. I did not get into keeping tarantulas at that time - but I did start appreciating them.

Fast forward to a few years ago at a reptile show. Chris, of Krazy 8's, showed me a Pterinochilus murinus (aka OBT). It was beautiful, and despite his warnings that it might not be the best beginner's tarantula, I got it. It proved to be interesting, beautiful, and surprisingly easy to keep. That paved the way for others.

Then along comes an ATS conference. I bought tickets to the raffle more with the idea of contributing to a good cause than with winning anything. I had no clue that people walked away with handfulls of spiders from this raffle, but I soon found out otherwise. Plus the dealers there had an amazing array of irresistables. I bought a few, won a bunch, and my tarantula "collection" got started.
 

mortar516

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Jul 25, 2009
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I was speaking with a co-worker who previously owned them. Prior to that, I never even thought about owning one. I'm embarassed to admit that I thought a t bite could kill you. After doing some research and realizing how misinformed I had been, I thought it would be a unique experience. When I saw a B. Smithi and found myself saying that spider is beautiful, I knew I was going to get one. That's one of the things I like about the hobby, there are many "beginner" taranantulas that are so impressive looking. It really makes it easy to get into.
 

mortar516

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Jul 25, 2009
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I should have added that the many knowledgeable people on this forum helped introduce me to tarantulas. There is no way that I would have purchased one before obtaining some knowledge and there are not that many places to turn.
 

JC50

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I was afraid of spiders :8o so one day I figured what better way to get over it.
I read every thing I could find on T's till i finally felt i was ready. I got my first T ( G. rosea ) and it was love at first handle. I now have 22 in under 4 months.
What a start! {D
I bought my first spider for the same reason.I was very afraid of spiders and wanted to get over my fear or them.Well i guess it worked since i have around 80 now and still want more.:)
 

ghordy

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Aug 18, 2009
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I went to my niece's house for a barbecue and she brought out her G. rosea and I was totally in awe. I now have 4.
 

masterwrench

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Jul 20, 2009
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Everyone I worked with knew I was scared of spiders. It was common to have fake plastic spiders hidden about in my work area just to see me scream like a pre teen school girl. One day the guys thought they would really get me by putting a real tarantula in my tool box. It did scare the crap out of me but instead of killing it like they thought I would I caught it and took it home. It was a stripe knee. We put it in an aquarium and thus started the collection. We eventually had about 40 species of T's, several scorpions, snakes, centipedes. I have since gotten over my fear of spiders. We had to sell everything when we put our house up for sale.
Fast forward several years to the present. About two weeks ago we decided to get back into tarantulas. This past weekend we went to the expo in Daytona and came home with L. violacepes, H. maculata, S. calceatum, P. cambridgei, P. 'platyomma', A. versicolor, and a P. irminia. Its great to have T's in the house again. I cant wait to expand my collection in the coming weeks to include P. subfusca, P. metallica, P. ornata, C. schoedtei, and a nice greenbottle for my wife. Its also nice to see this board still has nice people and good information. My wife said she really only wants to have about 10 T's but I think 30 is a nice round number....dont you?:)
 

Crounchaholic

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Aug 20, 2009
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I have a girlfriend who's boyfriend owns a shitload of tarantulas, and I went to sleep over at their house and saw them all and was terrified - There were like 60 of them in the living room, where I was supposed to sleep. First night, yeah, I sooo didn't sleep well. I went over there a couple of times after that and my friend's boyfriend, who's a teacher, taught me a whole bunch of cool facts about them, and I started to have interest in them. Eventually, I thought they were cute, and amazing to look at. They gave me one for my birthday, a psalmopoeus cambridgei, and they also gave me a cyriocosmus elegans. I love them both and am now looking to buy more!!!!
 

tekkendarklord

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Feb 16, 2009
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well at first I wasn't really interested on Ts though I was more like a stag beetle fan. When I move to the U.S I found out that it's illegal to import foreign beetles so that's when I moved to scorpions then to the Ts now I'm more addicted to Ts than scorpions.
 

Ariel

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Aug 2, 2009
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My life started with a love and utter fascination with spiders. When I lived in Florida (until I was 3) my mom took me out and we caught banana spiders to scare my dad with. But to ask when I first started liking tarantulas. I suppose the first time I saw one behind glass in a pet store or in a zoo. One particular memory is when a friend of mine brought his B. smithi to school in the third grade. Of course my dad, a serious arachnophobe who refuses to see reason, wouldn't let me get one. It took me 11 years! to convince him to get my first T a B. smithi, and four months later I bought my second T which was kind of a surprise, the day before i got it "hey dad, I'm getting another tarantula" "WHAT?!" {D {D {D He's a MM A. avicularia. (didn't know he was mature until after I bought him :mad:
 

Stopdroproll

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Aug 27, 2006
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Spiderman was one of my favorite superheroes. :) My friend had a G. Rosea and it was pretty cool, except the time it kicked its hairs. I was online awhile ago and saw a picture of A. Geniculata and thought it looked awesome.
 

Lucyk

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Aug 24, 2009
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well i got in2 T's when i started an animal care course at collage and they had 3 T's there, 2 G. rosea's and a curly hair. and at first i woulden't even put my hand in there tank 2 get there water bowl but by half way through my 1st year i was confidently holding all of them so in febuary this year i decided to get a T and have been facinated by them ever scince. :D
 

Luiscifer

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I know im going to sound cleché but it was spidermans fault. To this day he is my favorite hero and well need I say more.
 

Steve Calceatum

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May 22, 2009
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I was scared of spiders for as long as I could remember. Bugs never bothered me...but the spidies would frighten and yet fascinate me at the same time. In December of last year, I dated this girl who had a few T's. I was nervous about sleeping in the same room as these eight-legged freaks, and often had to have a few beers before I could relax enough to get to sleep. One night, she put a few Jagerbombs down my throat, and gave me the "Indian Bravery Test." She dared me to hold her largest one, or I'd never hear the end of it. :D

Long story short, it was the thrill of a lifetime, and I didn't want to put it back. So I went out and bought an adult female G. rosea the very next day. Nine months later, I'm sitting in my room typing this while anxiously waiting for my order of an OBT, H. mac, S. calciatum, P. regalis, and L.P. to add to the 6 T's I already have. :drool: I even ordered an Avic avic juvie, just so I'd have another "handling" spider.

My room is somewhat of a curiosity among my friends, and the first thing most people do when they come over is head for the display cages. Another interesting thing is that just about EVERYBODY who had made fun of me for being scared of spiders in the past are now FRIGHTENED by mine!!! :D
 

Nokturnal1980

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Jul 9, 2007
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Well here is our story. Nine years ago I was working at Audio Hack in a mall and became friends with one of my coworkers. He started dating a girl that he said really like spiders. So, he got this brilliant idea to buy a G. rosea to impress his new girl. She eventually broke up with my coworker. Around two to three weeks later he was going on vaction and did not trust his roommates to take proper care of the then named "Mr Biggelsworth". He asked me to watch "him" for a little over a week. I must admit I was fairly scared of spiders, but waking up and seeing a big one staring at you every morning will kinda break the fear. Well fast forward back to now we still have "her" and she is donig well and we now have 66 of these wonderful creatures.

Now here is her take on it. I was adamantly against the petsitting. I was the girl who yelled for her daddy to kill spiders because I was so terrified. I finally agreed if he swore that he would come home no matter where he was and catch it. the deal was he had 1 hour to catch her or I was getting a shoe and a can of raid. Eventually I warmed up to the first one. Now I have several that are my babies.
 
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