Most fun tarantulas to keep

[zeeman]

Then you’re doing it wrong, j/k.

Where you get the bang for the buck on arboreals aside for some amazing color is feeding time and sometimes the amazing web hammocks and tubes. Avics (fanboy here) can have a really good feeding response once they assess the pray. It’s not as energy packed of a take down like some of the other arboreals but watching their gentle quality is satisfying just the same, for myself at least.

My C versicolor sling and adult A metallica are two of the laziest T's I have when it comes to hunting. Though this C versi is far better (being older than my previous C versi's), the A metallica sits in its same spot all day and only moves when a cricket is literally on top of it.

And I love the webs of my N incei, but this is just too cool. This is revision 4 or 5 and the T was sitting out visible before I rotated the enclosure to get better pictures.

 

[Atraxrobustus86]

I grew up with a G. rosea from 12-18 years when I moved out but she lived 24 years total in my dads care. I think she was a sub adult when he got her but still lived longer than both the family dogs.
I have a T. albo and I love her. She is now a pet rock but watching her build her burrow for almost 2 weeks and refusing food while building it was almost comical. Sad that the burrow she spent so long building she now hardly uses, unless spooked.

 

[asunshinefix]

They grow faster than most beginner species up to about 3"...at 3" the growth does slow way down, but they already have that adult look and care.

As for the appetite, you have been misinformed, they are excellent eaters right out of the sac and all the way to old age. Now as they get large, molt cycles are long, and any t with a long molt cycle that's fed heavily will have very long fasting periods...but thats on the keeper to not over feed.

Ive raised 350 at a time (half a sac) and many other individuals since and before...poor eaters are very uncommon, like 1 in 100 IME...slow growers are usually just housed in too large of an enclosure. I used to feed 1-300 at a time, and every time all the way to juvie I would only see food refusals when they were in pre molt.

Seconding this, mine is always hungry and will eat all the way through premolt. Growth rate is slow but not bad for a terrestrial NW - in four years my female has gone from 1/2" to 5.5", and I'm more on the conservative side with feeding. She has a lovely temperament too; of all my NWs, only my H. chilensis is more laid back.