My 8-Legged Cockroach - Handling Spiderlings

Tranz

Arachnobaron
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Sep 18, 2002
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Yesterday I made a second attempt to overcome my "hesitance" to handle my G. Pulchra 1 1/4" spiderling. It took about an hour, but I worked my way to having it on its petpal lid, which was angled slighly into the edge of my hand.

This is the standard advice for handling tarantulas, and the following is a quote from a PDF on handling spiderlings:

"If one wishes to hold the spider, place a hand in front of the spider with the palm upward. Gently prod the spider from the back with a pencil or your finger. It will crawl up on the hand."

I gently prodded the spider with the tip of a small rolled-up paper towel - the spiderling proceeded to make a mad dash under the couch, about seven feet away! The couch was a hide-away bed, and I could not see the spiderling anywhere under it, so I was forced to gently lift up on it. Fortunately , the sling had climbed up to where he was exposed by that action, but unfortunately he moved to a seem where any movement of the bed would have crushed him. I was lucky enough to gradually herd him away from the couch where I put a glad container bowl over him and a cardboard sheet under him. It took an hour to gradually recapture him.

The sling could easily have climbed somewhere impossible to find , or gone to a place where he would have been crushed, either then or later. When I first put him in his keeper 13 days ago, he moved suddenly, but not more than a foot, and stopped. Therefore, I thought it was his nature to always do this. I could not have imagined him running across the room like a common wood spider in heat.

In no case did he flick hairs or show aggression. He acted frightened, and ran in brief desperate bursts of speed that surprised me, but mostly tried to just quietly hide. After he was back in his pen, he stood on two legs, his body flush against the glass, looking at me in what I imagined to be righteous anger.

I thought he was going to act like a docile pet and he really acted like a poor little scared spider that had gotten in by accident. What I did seemed cruel, and I'm not sure I'll try it again.

I gave him a specially large cricket and he was munching on it in the middle of the night, and did massive earth-moving and even dug a "shallow grave" burrow and was lying in it when I got up this morning. I think all that activity might have been a nervous reaction to his ordeal.

I would like to ask those people who show pictures of themselves handling spiderlings: What planet do you live on? Do you put them in the fridge for 15 minutes before you handle them? Or did I end up with a frenetic Brazilian Black?
 

SkyeSpider

Spider Queen
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It's generally not a good idea to handle spiders, period. That said, a lot of us do. I prefer to handle adults, as they're much less fragile and easier to keep track of. Of the spiderlings I've handled, a couple of my pinktoes have been the worst for jumping and running. It's all about being VERY gentle, and very slow. They don't like jumpy movements.

-Bryan
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
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Spiderlings by and large are far more nervous and spastic than adults. My G. pulchra sling is one of the most twitchy and flighty things on the planet, same for my G. aureostriata. Yet both are widely known for being spider lumps as adults - it's just the way these things work.

Give it time. Barring an early demise, you've got at the minimum years and possibly decades for you and the T to grow into one another.
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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IME, spiderlings of ANY species are quite spastic! They are unbelievably fast as well. I should know, I've just finished separating over 500 B albopilosum slings that are *maybe* 1/2"
I'm surprised we managed to do it, without any major accidents!
Last night, my daugther and I were sitting in the living room after feeding about 250 of them. She says 'look mom, a baby'! and I looked down, one of them must have escaped the deli cup during feeding, and we running across the floor.
We recaptured the little bugger, but I have to wonder....are we missing any more?!
Slings of any species can teleport..didn't you know? ;)
Be prepared, if you must handle them, do sit on a soft surface, with no or minimal hiding places.
Better yet, wait till it's a bit bigger!
 

kosh

Arachnobaron
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Sep 10, 2002
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immortal_sin......i was just fixin to post a thread asking you if you had separated/counted all thoise slings yet....glad i read this first!!....WOW!!!
over 500!! that must have been a heckuva job separating those......the quantity of slings that are produced by spiders is one of the reasons i am hesitant to have my male bred.....i dont know what on earth i would do with or where i would put even half that many slings (if i did a 50/50 split)...thought about trying to just trade him off for another spider of a species i want and just not get any slings or VERY few...but dont know if people would think im nuts trying to trade an (as good as dead) adult male G. rosea for a more desirable sub adult or adult (female wishfully) of a different species.......
 

Immortal_sin

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Kosh (and everyone else)
yes, I separated 492, and have about 100 more all together...since I have no more containers.
I think the final count is about 600.
I'll be contacting everyone regarding shipping soon. I want to make sure they all eat first.
Not sure what the heck I'm going to do with them either LOL
I might offer to trade a large lot of them for 1 adult of some sort
 

MrDeranged

He Who Rules
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Aren't 300 going to Billy? Or did he tell you to just keep them? Didn't he just receive a bunch from another 50/50 split he did with someone else with a curly hair?

Scott
 

Immortal_sin

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yes, 300 are going to Billy, so that leaves 300 for me to distribute :)
He received about that many already from Joy...Billy is going to be one busy man...all I can say is, better him than me!
 

Devildoll

Arachnoknight
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Jul 19, 2002
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yes, slings teleport.
even adults can teleport, but are generally a little lazier.
my P. ornata sling went ballistic the second the cap came off his shipping vile. He proceeded to run literal laps around my head for a couple minutes.... i could do nothing.
now my slings are absolutly not allowed out.

i also had an A. versicolor jump from hand to forehead repeatedly one time... that was kind of funny.
 

kosh

Arachnobaron
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yikes!!!....i love tarantulas but i am still a bit arachnophobic......i sure hope any spiders i get arent going to try and do laps around my head!! or try to teleport!!...hopefully they will be nice cooperative little critters!!
 

chaset

Arachnosquire
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Sep 9, 2002
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sounds like fun

how do you deal with more tempermental old world species at such a small age? I don't think id like a few hundread baby baboons running and teleporting about.
 

atavuss

Arachnoprince
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Re: sounds like fun

Originally posted by chaset
how do you deal with more tempermental old world species at such a small age? I don't think id like a few hundread baby baboons running and teleporting about.
I use the bathtub when working with small flighty lings.....if they do a runner easier to catch them in the bathtub or bathroom than the living room, bedroom, etc. less places to hide.
Ed
 

Nich

Curator of glass boxes
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arboreal slings

all my arboreal slings tend to try to go "up" and even when get as "up" as they can they kinda reach around n the air feeling for something to grab....especially all of my avics and particularly my versi's...they are the most sensitive to air currents to me. a single breath will make them dart real quick. Does anyone have the same experience with avic slings....that as they walk they wave thier front limbs to feel for things to climb on..? It is very interesting to look at.
 

Immortal_sin

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wow...cool old thread resurrected :)
Yes, my arboreals, and particularly the Avic genus, all wave their legs about. They will also launch themselves into the air, and land in a curled up ball. Then they will make a mad dash. I find them impossible to predict or control, and never handle them unless I'm doing a container transfer or packing/unpacking.
The OBTs are even worse. They are extremely fast, and never seem to get tired of running. I've had to completely disrobe more than once, to find one somewhere in my clothing. I've contemplated doing sling transfers naked :D
 

Fenris

Arachnoknight
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Mar 29, 2004
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My 1 1/2 inch baby G. rosea is a flighty little wanker. The other day when I took him out to take a few pictures, he was running all over my hand. I accidentally breathed a little too hard and I thought he was going to teleport to the other side of the room! But instead, he just gave me a shock by running to the other side of my arm.

Yesterday he was climbing on the ceiling of his critter keeper so I decided to try and help him down. MISTAKE! As I was carefuly opening the lid, he ran from one corner of the lid, down to the substrate, up the opposite wall and almost out of the keeper! All of this in less than two seconds. I reacted just in time and managed to close it without him getting out. Now, I figure if he wants to climb and explore his keeper, it's fine by me... and probably by him too! Cute little buggers aren't they? :rolleyes: I think I'll wait until he is about 3 inches to handle him some more.
 

Mendi

Arachnowolf
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Immortal_sin said:
yes, 300 are going to Billy, so that leaves 300 for me to distribute :)
He received about that many already from Joy...Billy is going to be one busy man...all I can say is, better him than me!

Sounds like an arachnoboards raffle coming up :D
 
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