Kids and Ts/What is your tarantula journey?

[MrsHaas]

Is anyone here also a parent of a T lover??

My tarantula journey actually started when my mom bought me a “Rose Hair Tarantula” at 3 years old.

I regrettably admit that I was not the best keeper, considering it had been purchased from some pet store conglomerate like Petco or Petsmart and all the information we were given about how to care for it was, in retrospect, horrible. And I was very young - obviously my mom cared for it til I was old enough. I kept it well into my college years.

It died on my 24th birthday and I was so sad that I immediately bought another one. However, as I was in the store purchasing another “Rose hair“ I saw a different tarantula in the display next to it that wasn’t simply hairy and brown: it was fuzzy and black with pink toes. Also, it was stringing up webbing in the top corner of its enclosure, something I had never seen a tarantula do before, as the only one I’d ever known was a terrestrial. I really took an interest in it and about two weeks after I purchased my second T (a male G. rosea), I came back to the same store for that one and brought it home as well.

And that is when I started actually looking into tarantulas and how to properly care for them and what different kinds were out there that people had, etc. Believe me when I tell you I was blown away by everything I continued to research and learn!! By the time I joined Arachnoboards, I was already a full-blown addict and had acquired up to 10 different Ts.

A few years later, my husband started getting interested in Ts as well. He is a collector at heart and already had several other collections, so he fell hard into the hobby; at one point we had up to nearly 75 different species (only a few duplicates) - which was a large number for our current life circumstances.

In 2016, my husband and I had a baby boy, and since we were already in deep with our shared T hobby, our son would no doubt be growing up around a lot of tarantulas and he would have to learn about them and how to care for them, etc. …that way he could help more and more with the husbandry as he got older because the Ts weren’t going anywhere… Haha

When my son was 3, I bought him his first T!! It was a Psalmopeous ecclesiasticus sling he named “Werp” - I wanted to spoil him with something special and different than anything we already had at the time.

Werp has since passed, but our son continues to help us with the care and loves the collecting aspect as well. In fact, he is 9 years old now and he has already done 4 (supervised!) rehouses (which included both making the new enclosure and actually getting the spider into it). Needless to say, I’m a very proud mama!!

Does anybody else involve their kids in their T hobby? Or maybe you have a kid interested in the great T hobby and you, yourself, are here on your kid’s behalf or to try and get more info on their interests?

If so, (or if not) please share! I’d love to know why everyone that is here is here.

Give us your own tarantula journey!!

Below is a picture of my son and Werp (lol)

 

[Lynn57]

I think this journey your on is wonderful! Your little boy is precious and his love for animals will be forever with him. I'm 70 and recently got into keeping a few jumping spiders and T's. My oldest daughter loves them as well and has collected 6. The Grandaughters are 7 and 9 and love them as well. They have kept "house spiders" as pets for years lol I think it's just so wholesome and great for kids.

 

[MrsHaas]

I think this journey your on is wonderful! Your little boy is precious and his love for animals will be forever with him. I'm 70 and recently got into keeping a few jumping spiders and T's. My oldest daughter loves them as well and has collected 6. The Grandaughters are 7 and 9 and love them as well. They have kept "house spiders" as pets for years lol I think it's just so wholesome and great for kids.

How wonderful!! Thanks for sharing… happy to meet you! Do/did you and your daughter do T stuff together? I can’t wait til my son is older and can do a lot more so we can increase our collection a bit… we have 33, but I could be ok with a few more! What does your collection consist of?

 

[viper69]

Is anyone here also a parent of a T lover??

My tarantula journey actually started when my mom bought me a “Rose Hair Tarantula” at 3 years old.

I regrettably admit that I was not the best keeper, considering it had been purchased from some pet store conglomerate like Petco or Petsmart and all the information we were given about how to care for it was, in retrospect, horrible. And I was very young - obviously my mom cared for it til I was old enough. I kept it well into my college years.

It died on my 24th birthday and I was so sad that I immediately bought another one. However, as I was in the store purchasing another “Rose hair“ I saw a different tarantula in the display next to it that wasn’t simply hairy and brown: it was fuzzy and black with pink toes. Also, it was stringing up webbing in the top corner of its enclosure, something I had never seen a tarantula do before, as the only one I’d ever known was a terrestrial. I really took an interest in it and about two weeks after I purchased my second T (a male G. rosea), I came back to the same store for that one and brought it home as well.

And that is when I started actually looking into tarantulas and how to properly care for them and what different kinds were out there that people had, etc. Believe me when I tell you I was blown away by everything I continued to research and learn!! By the time I joined Arachnoboards, I was already a full-blown addict and had acquired up to 10 different Ts.

A few years later, my husband started getting interested in Ts as well. He is a collector at heart and already had several other collections, so he fell hard into the hobby; at one point we had up to nearly 75 different species (only a few duplicates) - which was a large number for our current life circumstances.

In 2016, my husband and I had a baby boy, and since we were already in deep with our shared T hobby, our son would no doubt be growing up around a lot of tarantulas and he would have to learn about them and how to care for them, etc. …that way he could help more and more with the husbandry as he got older because the Ts weren’t going anywhere… Haha

When my son was 3, I bought him his first T!! It was a Psalmopeous ecclesiasticus sling he named “Werp” - I wanted to spoil him with something special and different than anything we already had at the time.

Werp has since passed, but our son continues to help us with the care and loves the collecting aspect as well. In fact, he is 9 years old now and he has already done 4 (supervised!) rehouses (which included both making the new enclosure and actually getting the spider into it). Needless to say, I’m a very proud mama!!

Does anybody else involve their kids in their T hobby? Or maybe you have a kid interested in the great T hobby and you, yourself, are here on your kid’s behalf or to try and get more info on their interests?

If so, (or if not) please share! I’d love to know why everyone that is here is here.

Give us your own tarantula journey!!

Below is a picture of my son and Werp (lol)

View attachment 496983

That hippy needs a haircut!!

 

[ladyratri]

I got started as part of helping my older son (8-9 at the time, now 12) through exposure therapy for a bug phobia. He went from "crying meltdown and fleeing to another room because a fruit fly landed on his placemat" to successfully feeding a cricket to one of our tarantulas. He doesn't do full on rehouses, but our recently-departed male P. irminia was "his" -- he picked it out at the reptile store and named it. And posed for a photo in front of the enclosure, while Spunk was out and visible, for the "kids with their pets" photo request for the yearbook last year

His little brother was just turning 4 when we got the first tarantula, now 7, and he's definitely growing up with a bit of an arachnid fascination. He sees me and my husband calling the photos on here adorable and beautiful, so he does too. He wants a jumping spider and talks about it a lot. We're giving it a little more time for him to develop some responsibility though

 

[Charliemum]

I started collecting because of my youngest son, he passed away after an asthma attack his name was Marshall his nick name marshalli...you see where this is leading and while I couldn't get a marshalli (if something happened...) it started a passion and a 107 strong collection.
A year later after alot of research I got my first t a Brachypelma baumgarteni called Pip, my eldest son 7 at the time fell in love with her same as I did my very next order, a carabiner versicolor sling for him.
My boy has a few t's now but has recently stopped wanting them and lost interest so his collection has just amalgamated into mine.
He never rehoused but liked feeding watering and naming them, I am hoping once he has gone through the idc teen stage he will pick back up with the hobby we enjoyed so much together.

 

[Mike41793]

When I was 16 I started out with snakes and one of my friends in the snake hobby a few years down the line got into roaches and Ts. He explained the hobby to me and I had little interest in it. But still followed his journey and started thinking huh, maybe they are kinda cool? So I said okay why not send me something. Been downhill ever since haha. I remember B. vagans was my first T and OBT was my second and I'm still alive to tell about it so really just research and common sense go a long way lol

 

[CentiPete]

Got mine because of my daughter nagging for four years wanting a mexican red knee, so the persinstence had been rewarded the B. Hamorii was purchased.

 

[Introvertebrate]

That hippy needs a haircut!!

Maybe he's in a rock band.

 

[Lynn57]

How wonderful!! Thanks for sharing… happy to meet you! Do/did you and your daughter do T stuff together? I can’t wait til my son is older and can do a lot more so we can increase our collection a bit… we have 33, but I could be ok with a few more! What does your collection consist of?

Happy to meet you as well! Yes, we both are into the T's (and lots of other animals!) I started with a jumping spider and my daughter and kids have always loved and saved any spider or bug they see. A cat faced orb weaver lives in her kitchen lol They have fed it from a tiny baby and you should see it now!! Flory is her name. We have 12 between us now. GBB, Pumpkin patch, Curlies, Brazilian dwarf blue, and she has a few of the red legged plus a orange tree one. (I'm so bad at the scientific names) We both want a Caribena Versicolor! What all do you have? Do you have them in a "spider room or area" or all around the house?

 

[viper69]

Maybe he's in a rock band.

I hope so, because there's a lot of money there!

 

[MrsHaas]

Happy to meet you as well! Yes, we both are into the T's (and lots of other animals!) I started with a jumping spider and my daughter and kids have always loved and saved any spider or bug they see. A cat faced orb weaver lives in her kitchen lol They have fed it from a tiny baby and you should see it now!! Flory is her name. We have 12 between us now. GBB, Pumpkin patch, Curlies, Brazilian dwarf blue, and she has a few of the red legged plus a orange tree one. (I'm so bad at the scientific names) We both want a Caribena Versicolor! What all do you have? Do you have them in a "spider room or area" or all around the house?

That’s seriously awesome! My “t room” is my bedroom- I have several large shelves that I keep all my Ts on.

I have 2 shelving units in my bedroom…

This 1st pic show one of my shelving units that only has my 2 AF P. Cambridgei and the rest of the shelves house tons of empty enclosures and supplies that we have kept from other spiders, since deceased. There was a time that every shelf was filled with enclosures containing live spiders, but our collection has been on the decline as all our adults are dying off of old age - thus is nature - and now we have a majority of younger Ts and slings, which don’t take up much space.




This 2nd pic shows my other unit, on which I actually have Ts on every layer, many even in their forever homes. There are 3 AF pamphos on the bottom (sp.s mascara, Machala and antinous). My AF b hamorii, AF genic, and AF b bohemei are on the 2nd shelf. And the top 2 shelves contain all my slings and smaller juvies (g pulchripes, Tliltocatl albopilosus, GBB, OBT, H sp Bach mah, h namaquensis, davus sp Panama, pumpkin patch, o aureotilialis, p irminias, b vegans, b Kassi, nhandu chromatus) along with my AF Aphonopelma chalcodes and my FA c schioedtei. I think the total number currently is 33.



Initially we wanted our son’s room (we live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house) to be a T room, but we eventually decided we wanted a baby more I guess. LOL …And I really don’t mind. In fact, the smell of substrate is something I find rather comforting!!

I love the idea of having Ts throughout the house!! But - here comes the big plot twist - my husband and I rent the house we’re living in from my parents and my mom has gotten upset on several occasions about us having so many tarantulas!! I mean, HELLO?! She started it!! I didn’t buy myself my first T when I was 3 years old!!!! Muahahahaahaaa

 

[Matt Man]

My daughter was 5, walked up to me and said "Daddy I want a spider" and thus began our journey. Our first was a rescue of a MF OBT who was on bad substrate. I was a "pro lurker" at that time as I didn't wanna post "Newb here with Angry OBT - Help" Post. So I used the search function diligently in silence (imagine that @viper69 ) and gleaned enough info to get her rehoused. I had been in the hobby and lurking this board for about 5 years before I joined. We'd go to Expos where I'd hand her cash and let her shop. A 7 year old girl with a decent grasp of latin gets way better deals than an adult male. We became friends with numerous dealers and one show, a dealer's help had all cancelled at the last minute. He asked us nicely if we'd like to help and we did. That was almost 8 years ago and 6 plus shows a year. My daughter is now over half way through her bachelors, and still in the hobby (plus snakes, lizards and frogs) and living on her own but we still do shows together. I still have some of her collection at home and I credit the hobby with really getting her into the sciences.

 

[DystruktoBoi1]

My kid absolutely loves them. I didn't get into T's because of her but she shares my love for them. She's always asking to keep one in her room but I know if I did she would take it out and play with it all the time so until she's a bit older that won't be happening. Here are some pictures of the rare times she begs me enough to take out my docile little blondie for her to hold for a few mins.

 

[MrsHaas]

@Mike41793I bred several corn snakes when I was 8 or 9… but spiders have always been my biggest exotic pet passions.

 

[MrsHaas]

View attachment 497107

View attachment 497108

My kid absolutely loves them. I didn't get into T's because of her but she shares my love for them. She's always asking to keep one in her room but I know if I did she would take it out and play with it all the time so until she's a bit older that won't be happening. Here are some pictures of the rare times she begs me enough to take out my docile little blondie for her to hold for a few mins.

That is quite a small blondi lol!!

My family has a no handling policy, just out of respect and safety for the Ts mostly. I feel like the Ts would probably more likely get hurt or stressed from a handling encounter than one of us humans would. But either way, I still don’t want to risk it.

I did ONCE allow my son at age 7 or eight to hold our B. hamorii AF (his favorite of the bunch), just to show him that they are not usually threatening or aggressive animals. I also only let him hold her for no more than five minutes. My b Hamorii was the best one to go with because she never has been a big kicker or particularly combative/defensive/skittish in any way shape or form in any of the interactions anyone has had with her since she was a sling, probably 12 to 15 years ago.

When people ask us if we hold our spiders, we just tell that we do not; we say that we collect different species of them and keep them on display “like someone would keep a fish tank“. Meaning, we collect them. We take care of them. We watch them. We feed them. We study them. They entertain us with their innate and silly antics. They intrigue us each with their individual specific behaviors and routines. But, like people with fish would all probably maintain, no one really picks up a fish out of its enclosure and plays with it. Our collection, again like a fish tank, is more for the pleasure of viewing and exploring our Ts lives… our only interactions solely based on husbandry-driven circumstances.

Anyone else care to show what their T set up looks like? Whether you have an entire room for your tarantulas or you just have a couple shelves around the house, it’d be cool to see how other people display their collections. Please post pics everyone!

 

[DystruktoBoi1]

That is quite a small blondi lol!!

My family has a no handling policy, just out of respect and safety for the Ts mostly. I feel like the Ts would probably more likely get hurt or stressed from a handling encounter than one of us humans would. But either way, I still don’t want to risk it.

I did ONCE allow my son at age 7 or eight to hold our B. hamorii AF (his favorite of the bunch), just to show him that they are not usually threatening or aggressive animals. I also only let him hold her for no more than five minutes. My b Hamorii was the best one to go with because she never has been a big kicker or particularly combative/defensive/skittish in any way shape or form in any of the interactions anyone has had with her since she was a sling, probably 12 to 15 years ago.

When people ask us if we hold our spiders, we just tell that we do not; we say that we collect different species of them and keep them on display “like someone would keep a fish tank“. Meaning, we collect them. We take care of them. We watch them. We feed them. We study them. They entertain us with their innate and silly antics. They intrigue us each with their individual specific behaviors and routines. But, like people with fish would all probably maintain, no one really picks up a fish out of its enclosure and plays with it. Our collection, again like a fish tank, is more for the pleasure of viewing and exploring our Ts lives… our only interactions solely based on husbandry-driven circumstances.

Anyone else care to show what their T set up looks like? Whether you have an entire room for your tarantulas or you just have a couple shelves around the house, it’d be cool to see how other people display their collections. Please post pics everyone!

Yes it's very much a juvie, but already super chill. I've had it 3 years and it's eaten 5 times lol

I think there's a whole subsection for setups under the vivarium/terrarium subforum

 

[Mustafa67]

Is anyone here also a parent of a T lover??

My tarantula journey actually started when my mom bought me a “Rose Hair Tarantula” at 3 years old.

I regrettably admit that I was not the best keeper, considering it had been purchased from some pet store conglomerate like Petco or Petsmart and all the information we were given about how to care for it was, in retrospect, horrible. And I was very young - obviously my mom cared for it til I was old enough. I kept it well into my college years.

It died on my 24th birthday and I was so sad that I immediately bought another one. However, as I was in the store purchasing another “Rose hair“ I saw a different tarantula in the display next to it that wasn’t simply hairy and brown: it was fuzzy and black with pink toes. Also, it was stringing up webbing in the top corner of its enclosure, something I had never seen a tarantula do before, as the only one I’d ever known was a terrestrial. I really took an interest in it and about two weeks after I purchased my second T (a male G. rosea), I came back to the same store for that one and brought it home as well.

And that is when I started actually looking into tarantulas and how to properly care for them and what different kinds were out there that people had, etc. Believe me when I tell you I was blown away by everything I continued to research and learn!! By the time I joined Arachnoboards, I was already a full-blown addict and had acquired up to 10 different Ts.

A few years later, my husband started getting interested in Ts as well. He is a collector at heart and already had several other collections, so he fell hard into the hobby; at one point we had up to nearly 75 different species (only a few duplicates) - which was a large number for our current life circumstances.

In 2016, my husband and I had a baby boy, and since we were already in deep with our shared T hobby, our son would no doubt be growing up around a lot of tarantulas and he would have to learn about them and how to care for them, etc. …that way he could help more and more with the husbandry as he got older because the Ts weren’t going anywhere… Haha

When my son was 3, I bought him his first T!! It was a Psalmopeous ecclesiasticus sling he named “Werp” - I wanted to spoil him with something special and different than anything we already had at the time.

Werp has since passed, but our son continues to help us with the care and loves the collecting aspect as well. In fact, he is 9 years old now and he has already done 4 (supervised!) rehouses (which included both making the new enclosure and actually getting the spider into it). Needless to say, I’m a very proud mama!!

Does anybody else involve their kids in their T hobby? Or maybe you have a kid interested in the great T hobby and you, yourself, are here on your kid’s behalf or to try and get more info on their interests?

If so, (or if not) please share! I’d love to know why everyone that is here is here.

Give us your own tarantula journey!!

Below is a picture of my son and Werp (lol)

View attachment 496983

My kids are my Ts

 

[MrsHaas]

My kids are my Ts

Haha they must be really low maintenance

 

[Mustafa67]

Haha they must be really low maintenance

Kids are probably high maintenence. I have no human kids lol