Newbie here... admittedly clueless.

[katastrophe]

Hello! I've recently acquired a Chilean Rose Tarantula, whom I have named Princess. (And no I have no idea if it's even a female.)
We "met" at at exotic pet store and it was love at first... crawl? I don't know... anyway.

Finding all kinds of conflicting info online when it comes to caring for her so hopefully you guys could help me out here.

I'm feeding her 3 crickets, once a week. Is this adequate? Going by what pet store guy told me- but keeping in mind he had to look on Wikipedia while at the shop to even tell me what the so-called "rosehair tarantula" actually was.

I'm a veterinary assistant and have very little fear of being bitten; though I obviously only work with 4-legged creatures I have high pain tolerance. From what I've gathered so far, Princess seems quite timid. She was in the typical plastic container when I got her. I gave her a den that resembles a cupcake which she has taken a liking to and hides in. She has a large piece of bark to climb on and under, and I've covered the sides of her terrarium to give it a more cozier feel in an attempt to make her more comfortable.

When I lift the lid or anything she scurries into her cupcake. I've only had her a few days and I have no desire to make her unhappy or scare her. So I guess what I'm asking is, with enough patience will she ever no longer be scared? I've only had her a few days so I want to give her time. She crawled on my arm at the pet shop but even the employee wore a glove and she didn't really have a place to hide. So now given the choice it's clear she doesn't want to come out. Will she eventually become curious and willing to explore? I don't want to pick her up if she's in any way afraid, I'd rather let her come around in her own time.

Now that I've written a novel, I'll sum it up by asking; how can I make my shy little Princess willing to come out and rule her new kingdom?

 

[PrimalTaunt]

There's a reason that this thread is stickied at the top of this forum. Grab a good drink, curl up in a comfy chair, and enjoy. It contains pretty much anything you'll want to know about how to care for your G. rosea.

 

[katastrophe]

Already read it, thanks =) Was looking more about actually taming her, before handling.

 

[webbedone]

Rosies are your typical Living rock tarantula's so if its sitting in one spot all the time its just doing what its naturaly does. There is a Rose Hair care sheet on the boards just search for it, lucky you Rosies are the tanks of the tarantulas, a great newbie pet T and need very little to survive and thrive. If your Rosie is scattering away and hiding it might be a bit stressed, try not to distub her and let her adjust to her new home. Also Rosies can be VERY MOODY, and be cute and cuddly one day and the other want to eat your hand so be carefull.

I'll let others fill in the rest/you search for care sheet you will be a better keeper for it.

Oh and get yourself a copy of stanley schultz' tarantula keeper's guide. Great Starter material.

 

[Nicole]

Already read it, thanks =) Was looking more about actually taming her, before handling.

Tarantulas can't really be "tamed." She may tolerate your presence, but that's about it. How long have you had her? It may take a few weeks for her to get settled in and acclimated to her new enclosure.

 

[Bill S]

Already read it, thanks =) Was looking more about actually taming her, before handling.

Nicole is right. The tarantula doesn't get tamed - the owner gets trained. You basically need to learn enough about your tarantula, its reactions, and your reactions to be able to handle them correctly and safely. Or more importantly - when not to handle them.

 

[Hanes]

3 crickets a week is more than enough, she may go on long fasting periods aswell so don't be alarmed if she is refusing food

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Is that cake looking thing her hide ? If so that is great . My GF would love that setup .

 

[katastrophe]

Thanks for your advice everyone.. yeah I've only had her a few days; so that's why I haven't made much attempt to do anything with her until she settles in. We'll see how she does after she gets used to everything I suppose!

And yes, that cake thing is her hideaway, lol. ^_^

 

[jebbewocky]

I love the cake hide as well!

 

[brian abrams]

Feeding G Rosea

I agree that 3 crickets a week is suficient, and as already stated; don't be surprised if she goes off-feed for awhile. Mine has refused food most of the time throughout the summer. She is about due to molt though... She did the same thing last year. Not to worry, though. She's still pretty fat.

 

[webbedone]

The cake hide made me chukle as well I LIKE IT!

 

[Wachusaynoob]

That T is living a trip.

 

[NevularScorpion]

I'm gonna guess its a female even though I have not seen her ventral side. if you can post a pic of her ventrals sides I will be able to help you more about its sex. Also sweet set up very creative of you

 

[cacoseraph]

i'm going to go ahead and disagree with the whole "can't be tamed" camp... as long as i can kind of define what i mean


forget about dogs and rats and other clever four footed mammal friends... spiders are running SERIOUSLY outdated hardware and software compared. but... they do seem able to learn. and even learn that their handler is not a threat. i have had numerous spiders that were initially very hard to free handle. they would resist every effort to remove them from their cages and anything that involved actually touching my human skin. but over time their reluctance would disappear and eventually a good portion would voluntarily walk out of their cage and on to me.

don't misunderstand my intentions, though. i don't think this means the spiders "like" me or anything resembling some sort of "emotional connection" being made. what i think happens, roughly, is that each time the spider is repeatedly forced into being stimulated by me AND nothing bad happens to the spider it sort of fractionally downgrades that particular stimulus set as a threat. eventually those combinations of stimuli don't register as a threat at all and the spider becomes a somewhat more reliable hand pet.

i have had a few spiders that followed almost text book acclimatization patterns. one spider took 30 minutes to coax onto my hand the first time but eventually got to doing it essentially voluntarily. but if i didn't handle her for a few months she seemed to forget my downgraded threat status to greater or lesser extents that seemed to roughly correlate to the length of time since i had played with her last


obviously definitely not conclusive in the least... but given spiders well known and scientifically acknowledged ability to learn what prey are good and bad to eat i think marginally extending that to learning which situations need to be avoided at all costs and which can safely be more or less passively tolerated is not that big of leap in logic


oh, and it wasn't particularly quick, fast, or easy to handle break some of my spiders. the large adult female P. regalis that was my sort of poster child for the effort took months and quite a few handling sessions to real noticeably become accustomed to it

 

[katastrophe]

i'm going to go ahead and disagree with the whole "can't be tamed" camp... as long as i can kind of define what i mean


forget about dogs and rats and other clever four footed mammal friends... spiders are running SERIOUSLY outdated hardware and software compared. but... they do seem able to learn. and even learn that their handler is not a threat. i have had numerous spiders that were initially very hard to free handle. they would resist every effort to remove them from their cages and anything that involved actually touching my human skin. but over time their reluctance would disappear and eventually a good portion would voluntarily walk out of their cage and on to me.

don't misunderstand my intentions, though. i don't think this means the spiders "like" me or anything resembling some sort of "emotional connection" being made. what i think happens, roughly, is that each time the spider is repeatedly forced into being stimulated by me AND nothing bad happens to the spider it sort of fractionally downgrades that particular stimulus set as a threat. eventually those combinations of stimuli don't register as a threat at all and the spider becomes a somewhat more reliable hand pet.

i have had a few spiders that followed almost text book acclimatization patterns. one spider took 30 minutes to coax onto my hand the first time but eventually got to doing it essentially voluntarily. but if i didn't handle her for a few months she seemed to forget my downgraded threat status to greater or lesser extents that seemed to roughly correlate to the length of time since i had played with her last


obviously definitely not conclusive in the least... but given spiders well known and scientifically acknowledged ability to learn what prey are good and bad to eat i think marginally extending that to learning which situations need to be avoided at all costs and which can safely be more or less passively tolerated is not that big of leap in logic


oh, and it wasn't particularly quick, fast, or easy to handle break some of my spiders. the large adult female P. regalis that was my sort of poster child for the effort took months and quite a few handling sessions to real noticeably become accustomed to it

Thanks so much for this input! Can I ask then, how would you suggest my initial handling approach with her when she is actually hiding in her cake? It doesn't give me much actual access to her. It doesn't have an open bottom, so it's not as if I could just lift it up and then practice any of the handling techniques I've read. I know it'll take time and patience on my part before she ever learns to tolerate and accept being handled; but it seems that me giving her such a (well liked apparently, hehe) comfortable hide is making it difficult for me to be able to do much with her, as she immediately retreats to it when the lid is lifted. Recently she has come out more to explore and I see her wandering the whole terrarium, but she flees right to the cake when she notices any activity near the tank. I'm not looking for us to develop some e-harmony style romance or anything, but it would be nice to spend SOME quality time together, LOL.

Edit to add:
Also with feeding, I've read a lot of places even recommending 3 every TWO weeks as being okay. Just to clarify, this means giving all 3 at ONE time, correct? Or are you supposed to spread them out throughout the time? I assumed it meant all at once but figured I should make sure...

 

[katastrophe]

Well.. I think we can disregard almost all of that last message- think I've figured it out. =)

See below =D

Yup she's decided to not be afraid and just crawled right onto my hand. I adore the little thing!

Posing pretty:

 

[Stan Schultz]

There's a reason that this thread is stickied at the top of this forum. Grab a good drink, curl up in a comfy chair, and enjoy. It contains pretty much anything you'll want to know about how to care for your G. rosea.

That sticky has been updated at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html.

Enjoy your newfound little 8-legged buddy!

 

[Aurelia]

Looks like you're off to a great start! Congratulations! :clap: You'll be getting more spiders before you know it.

 

[Pociemon]

i'm going to go ahead and disagree with the whole "can't be tamed" camp... as long as i can kind of define what i mean


forget about dogs and rats and other clever four footed mammal friends... spiders are running SERIOUSLY outdated hardware and software compared. but... they do seem able to learn. and even learn that their handler is not a threat. i have had numerous spiders that were initially very hard to free handle. they would resist every effort to remove them from their cages and anything that involved actually touching my human skin. but over time their reluctance would disappear and eventually a good portion would voluntarily walk out of their cage and on to me.

don't misunderstand my intentions, though. i don't think this means the spiders "like" me or anything resembling some sort of "emotional connection" being made. what i think happens, roughly, is that each time the spider is repeatedly forced into being stimulated by me AND nothing bad happens to the spider it sort of fractionally downgrades that particular stimulus set as a threat. eventually those combinations of stimuli don't register as a threat at all and the spider becomes a somewhat more reliable hand pet.

i have had a few spiders that followed almost text book acclimatization patterns. one spider took 30 minutes to coax onto my hand the first time but eventually got to doing it essentially voluntarily. but if i didn't handle her for a few months she seemed to forget my downgraded threat status to greater or lesser extents that seemed to roughly correlate to the length of time since i had played with her last


obviously definitely not conclusive in the least... but given spiders well known and scientifically acknowledged ability to learn what prey are good and bad to eat i think marginally extending that to learning which situations need to be avoided at all costs and which can safely be more or less passively tolerated is not that big of leap in logic


oh, and it wasn't particularly quick, fast, or easy to handle break some of my spiders. the large adult female P. regalis that was my sort of poster child for the effort took months and quite a few handling sessions to real noticeably become accustomed to it

Well, i like your post. I have many poecilotheria metallica and 1 girl i have had since sling, i have handled her from that day. She just walks on my hand and just sits still. I can walk with her there and she just sits there. My other metallicas are more skittish and will take a run up my arm before settling in. But some of the others are now doing the same thing after only a few handling sessions. I do this on experimenting level with one of my females haplopelma hainanums, and same deal here, first time, a LOT of running, and now she just sits down and accepts. She is by no means a "peaceful" T, she has the same bad temper as the rest, so i need to take her up in a cup before attempt any handling with her. The p metallica i just coax out from the enclosure. So i think you have a point here.

I have only old world T´s because of severe hair allergi, so for that reason i only handle old worlds, and actually only a few of those aswell. So i wont reccomend any newbees to use those as a starter, but i witness the same things as you do here.