Fillo92
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2022
- Messages
- 9
Hey everyone! For years I've been looking forward to join the world of tarantula keepers, and I finally did it a few days ago, I got my first ever "baby", a female Brachypelma hamorii, around 2/2,5inch of diagonal legspan. Despite doing tons of research by myself before starting (I wanted to do things in the best way possible), I still have many doubts I'd like to clear in order to care for her to the point of perfection, sort of..
So, the first question is: for its size, is it considered as a juvenile or still a spiderling? It's already showing the typical colors of the species, but I read that it's normal for hamoriis to show them very soon, I though ther to be a juvenile in the very first stage, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong of course. I also noticed that she's regrowing a leg, because it looks shrivelled compared to the others, but it's fully functional, so in a few moults she should be fine
FEEDING: I took her home on the 19th of June, and I also got some crickets small enough to feed her. I always red that in the first days, maybe even weeks of getting a new enclosure, Tarantulas may not eat at all because they need to get comfortable with their new space since it's very stressful to change it. I decided to try anyway because in the box she was when i picked her up, there was also her moult, so it meant that it was pretty recent, being a process that takes so much energy I thought to at least try and see if she wanted to have a "snack" and she did eat two very small crickets (around the size of her abdomen, wich is plump but very balanced to her size) in the span of the very first two days, but I stopped giving her anything else after that because I red that at this stage, despite having a great appetite, one or two crickets of that size per week are good enough for this species since it grows slowly and of course, overfeeding doesn't speed up the process magically. I want her to grow in the best way!
ENCLOSURE & BEHAVIOUR: For the enclosure, I bought a FaunaBox that is probably very big for her at this stage (I originally planned to get a bigger tarantula), it's 17.5x11x6 inches more or less. The substrate is cocofiber, filling the box almost to half its height and 1/3 of it in some points, I put a hide (again, very big for her actual size), a water dish and some decorations. I also set up a thermometer that calculates humidity as well and it's on the 50% to 70% range, when it falls too much around the 50% I try to raise it a bit by misting the walls of the enclosure a little bit. I noticed that during the day, she spends all of her time in the same angle behind a fake plant (maybe she feels safer there) and climbing on the walls of the enclosure almost if she's an arboreal, wich is unusual for this species. However, I red about tarantulas refusing to get away from the point they choose to be in for days before getting accustomed. I also noticed that in the morning, she's always away from that spot, and that she actually dirtied her water dish with substrate and moved some of it here and ther, I guess it's normal since Tarantulas are nocturne animals. At least it means that she's exploring her new home, I try not to disturb her as much as I can during the day, I don't want to stress her out too much
Well I guess that this is pretty much everything! Sorry about the wall of text and a big, big thank you to all the people who are going to take the time to read it to help me, it means a lot! I'll put some pictures here to help you on your judgment. Please do feel free to tell me if I'm doing something in the wrong way so that I can correct it and provide my little girl with the best care possible. Thank you all again!
So, the first question is: for its size, is it considered as a juvenile or still a spiderling? It's already showing the typical colors of the species, but I read that it's normal for hamoriis to show them very soon, I though ther to be a juvenile in the very first stage, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong of course. I also noticed that she's regrowing a leg, because it looks shrivelled compared to the others, but it's fully functional, so in a few moults she should be fine
FEEDING: I took her home on the 19th of June, and I also got some crickets small enough to feed her. I always red that in the first days, maybe even weeks of getting a new enclosure, Tarantulas may not eat at all because they need to get comfortable with their new space since it's very stressful to change it. I decided to try anyway because in the box she was when i picked her up, there was also her moult, so it meant that it was pretty recent, being a process that takes so much energy I thought to at least try and see if she wanted to have a "snack" and she did eat two very small crickets (around the size of her abdomen, wich is plump but very balanced to her size) in the span of the very first two days, but I stopped giving her anything else after that because I red that at this stage, despite having a great appetite, one or two crickets of that size per week are good enough for this species since it grows slowly and of course, overfeeding doesn't speed up the process magically. I want her to grow in the best way!
ENCLOSURE & BEHAVIOUR: For the enclosure, I bought a FaunaBox that is probably very big for her at this stage (I originally planned to get a bigger tarantula), it's 17.5x11x6 inches more or less. The substrate is cocofiber, filling the box almost to half its height and 1/3 of it in some points, I put a hide (again, very big for her actual size), a water dish and some decorations. I also set up a thermometer that calculates humidity as well and it's on the 50% to 70% range, when it falls too much around the 50% I try to raise it a bit by misting the walls of the enclosure a little bit. I noticed that during the day, she spends all of her time in the same angle behind a fake plant (maybe she feels safer there) and climbing on the walls of the enclosure almost if she's an arboreal, wich is unusual for this species. However, I red about tarantulas refusing to get away from the point they choose to be in for days before getting accustomed. I also noticed that in the morning, she's always away from that spot, and that she actually dirtied her water dish with substrate and moved some of it here and ther, I guess it's normal since Tarantulas are nocturne animals. At least it means that she's exploring her new home, I try not to disturb her as much as I can during the day, I don't want to stress her out too much
Well I guess that this is pretty much everything! Sorry about the wall of text and a big, big thank you to all the people who are going to take the time to read it to help me, it means a lot! I'll put some pictures here to help you on your judgment. Please do feel free to tell me if I'm doing something in the wrong way so that I can correct it and provide my little girl with the best care possible. Thank you all again!
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