Reckless or Reasonable?

[MediterraneanSpiderDaddy1]

Ok so… you have done your research. You are not an idiot for buying an OW right now out the gate.

I’ve been in the hobby over 20 years and I tell everyone this… respect the species.

I started with OWs. The Usambara Orange Baboon was my very first T and till this day it is my most favorite T species. The Baboon Ts are my most favorite Ts period. They have moxie.

Like others have said, OWs are some of the most beautiful Ts in the trade, but they come at a cost. Most of them are skittish, defensive, bolt at a moments notice at best, and they do produce medically significant venom.

One of the other members mentioned that the keeper has to be the one confident and ready to work with unique characteristics of an OW species. If you love it and respect it, carry on friend. Just remember to respect it. Too easy.

I have had a H. Pulcripes in the past and I would handle her from time to time. Amazing T when she was out of her enclosure. While in it though, that was her kingdom and the little Queen would remind me whose house I was cleaning.

Just ignore the negativity, enjoy your T, be safe. For you and the T. You bought the ticket, time to ride the ride. Send pics of the little beauty.

I posted some pics of my Idiothele Mira, Blue Foot Baboon. Let me tell ya… for a “trapdoor” tarantula… she is a bolt of blue lightning when she wants to be lol. On top of that, she has Baboon T attitude when she feels like she needs to remind me that she is a big, independent spider

 

[Sauga Bound]

Ok so… you have done your research. You are not an idiot for buying an OW right now out the gate.

I’ve been in the hobby over 20 years and I tell everyone this… respect the species.

I started with OWs. The Usambara Orange Baboon was my very first T and till this day it is my most favorite T species. The Baboon Ts are my most favorite Ts period. They have moxie.

Like others have said, OWs are some of the most beautiful Ts in the trade, but they come at a cost. Most of them are skittish, defensive, bolt at a moments notice at best, and they do produce medically significant venom.

One of the other members mentioned that the keeper has to be the one confident and ready to work with unique characteristics of an OW species. If you love it and respect it, carry on friend. Just remember to respect it. Too easy.

I have had a H. Pulcripes in the past and I would handle her from time to time. Amazing T when she was out of her enclosure. While in it though, that was her kingdom and the little Queen would remind me whose house I was cleaning.

Just ignore the negativity, enjoy your T, be safe. For you and the T. You bought the ticket, time to ride the ride. Send pics of the little beauty.

I posted some pics of my Idiothele Mira, Blue Foot Baboon. Let me tell ya… for a “trapdoor” tarantula… she is a bolt of blue lightning when she wants to be lol. On top of that, she has Baboon T attitude when she feels like she needs to remind me that she is a big, independent spider

Thank-you for your post. Most of the members who posted in this thread have encouraged me and given me advice, and I'm grateful to you for your contribution. Your blue leg is gorgeous, btw. Thanks for sharing pics. Mine has been spending more time in her hide lately, so I don't think I have any new photos to share. She's actually constructed a door, using substrate and webbing so that I can't use my flashlight to check on her. I'm continually amazed buy these creatures and just how clever they can be and how distinct their personalities are. I imagine that when she gets settled in a few weeks, I'll be able to get some great shots of her. She is stunning, plump and healthy, a great eater, and very low-key compared to my GBB.

One of the other things I've learned in the short time I've been keeping tarantulas is how important confidence is in keeping them safely. If one doesn't have the confidence to stay calm and go slow if things do go sideways, then it's just a matter of time before a keeper finds themselves in a situation they cannot handle. As an educator, I suppose I've never seen the point in ridiculing people for being out of their depth, choosing instead to help them swim as best as they can. Perhaps I invited ridicule by the way I phrased the question in the thread title and initial post, but I realize not everyone shares my understanding of what educational is.

So, thanks again for your reply and I will definitely add new pics when I can get them. When I have enough skill and a safe place where I
can set them down without having to worry about them disappearing into the many dark recesses in my home, I have a great camera and professional macro lens that I can use to snap some awesome photos. For now, my phone is actually better at capturing snaps through the enclosure than my camera, even with proper lighting. I'm reluctant to remove the lid to photograph them without someone nearby to wrangle them if they make an escape attempt. I just need a good table and a room free of places they can easily disappear into. Right now, I have neither, lol.

 

[MediterraneanSpiderDaddy1]

Thank-you for your post. Most of the members who posted in this thread have encouraged me and given me advice, and I'm grateful to you for your contribution. Your blue leg is gorgeous, btw. Thanks for sharing pics. Mine has been spending more time in her hide lately, so I don't think I have any new photos to share. She's actually constructed a door, using substrate and webbing so that I can't use my flashlight to check on her. I'm continually amazed buy these creatures and just how clever they can be and how distinct their personalities are. I imagine that when she gets settled in a few weeks, I'll be able to get some great shots of her. She is stunning, plump and healthy, a great eater, and very low-key compared to my GBB.

One of the other things I've learned in the short time I've been keeping tarantulas is how important confidence is in keeping them safely. If one doesn't have the confidence to stay calm and go slow if things do go sideways, then it's just a matter of time before a keeper finds themselves in a situation they cannot handle. As an educator, I suppose I've never seen the point in ridiculing people for being out of their depth, choosing instead to help them swim as best as they can. Perhaps I invited ridicule by the way I phrased the question in the thread title and initial post, but I realize not everyone shares my understanding of what educational is.

So, thanks again for your reply and I will definitely add new pics when I can get them. When I have enough skill and a safe place where I
can set them down without having to worry about them disappearing into the many dark recesses in my home, I have a great camera and professional macro lens that I can use to snap some awesome photos. For now, my phone is actually better at capturing snaps through the enclosure than my camera, even with proper lighting. I'm reluctant to remove the lid to photograph them without someone nearby to wrangle them if they make an escape attempt. I just need a good table and a room free of places they can easily disappear into. Right now, I have neither, lol.

Hey catching them on walkabout is half the fun. My Mira cracks me up when out of no where I’m like, “O hey! There you are!”

I am a law enforcement instructor and soon to be attorney so I appreciate education. In this hobby you can never have enough.

I will share a moment of my hubris in this hobby. About 5 years into the hobby I thought I knew my Ts. T. Blondi, multiple Pokies, multiple Baboons, a cobalt blue, and a few others. My OBT was an energetic little beast to say the least. One day I went into her enclosure with my HAND to pick some bodies out she bit the fire out of me. What followed was about two weeks of pure hell on my right arm and shoulder. I learned the hard way to respect these ancient spiders. Never changed my love for them or kept me from handling them intermittently. I knew that I had entered her home and disrespected her, so I got got. That’s my fault, not her’s.

I posted some current pics of my A. Gen (Brazillian giant white knee), GBB, Avic Avic, and curly hair. They are all honeys.

 

[Sauga Bound]

Hey catching them on walkabout is half the fun. My Mira cracks me up when out of no where I’m like, “O hey! There you are!”

I am a law enforcement instructor and soon to be attorney so I appreciate education. In this hobby you can never have enough.

I will share a moment of my hubris in this hobby. About 5 years into the hobby I thought I knew my Ts. T. Blondi, multiple Pokies, multiple Baboons, a cobalt blue, and a few others. My OBT was an energetic little beast to say the least. One day I went into her enclosure with my HAND to pick some bodies out she bit the fire out of me. What followed was about two weeks of pure hell on my right arm and shoulder. I learned the hard way to respect these ancient spiders. Never changed my love for them or kept me from handling them intermittently. I knew that I had entered her home and disrespected her, so I got got. That’s my fault, not her’s.

I posted some current pics of my A. Gen (Brazillian giant white knee), GBB, Avic Avic, and curly hair. They are all honeys.

You really have some beautiful girls in your collection. Thank-you for sharing.

Do you keep more, or are these a few of your favorites? The A. Geniculata is gorgeous and I love the hide you have for your curly. I would probably get a curly next if I had the space. I own an avic (Peru Purple), but I wasn't able to pick her up from the breeder during the last expo in my city because of a snowstorm. The breeder is kindly taking care of her for me until the next local expo. When I'm finally able to pick her up at the end of the month, I'll have a small but awesome spider family.

So you got nailed by your OBT some time in the past. Yikes. Two weeks of pain, huh? That does not sound fun. Was it constant, intermittent, etc? It seems like different people have different symptoms, which is really interesting. I only recently learned through my research that the muscle cramping that OW venom can cause can lead to rhabdomyolysis, which I somehow became prone to in my early-30's. Last time I had it, I was in the hospital for more than two weeks and needed dialysis. I've had norovirus a few times in my life and it was that level of misery for weeks, with no break. Since learning that, I'm now considering giving my beautiful blue boots to a deserving keeper. I've experienced tarrible pain in my life and it's a risk I'm willing to take, but ending up in the ICU with kidney failure is something I never want to repeat. It sucks, but I may never be able to keep OW species for this reason. Letting her go will be hard if that's what I decide.

Of all the beauties in those photos, which is your favorite to keep?

BTW, good luck on the Bar exam if that's what you still have to do to become a practicing attorney. I had to choose between law and education a long time ago and I chose education, not predicting the wave of anti-intellectualism that was about to sweep across the West. That and COVID have made the field one of the most stressful, undercompensated and underappreciated professions out there. I should have gone to law school, lol.

 

[Sauga Bound]

Whoops! Is there a way to delete posts?

 

[Stu Macher]

Thank-you!
This is the kind of advice and information I was hoping to hear from experienced keepers. I have the spider, I have to take care of it. Do you think I'm and idiot, but also, can you help my to be less of one?

I do not believe that a bite or an escape is inevitable as long as I am vigilant and take my time learning the spider. Hell, maybe I should only feed her in the bathtub until I can appreciate her speed. I DO NOT want to make her go into fifth gear and teleport out of fear. My GBB does that sometimes and it's impressive. Hell, even my Pulchra has put on her boots and motored around the enclosure like Mr. Wheeller because I made a mistake.

I'm doing the reading and research, but I'm hoping that advanced keepers can answer the second part of the question as readily as they offer their opinion to the first. It's easy to say I messed up, but how can you help me keep this spider safely and gain experience with it?

I know its moves put vintage James Brown to shame, but what can I do to mitigate the danger? Many hobbyists keep these spiders safely. I've learned from some of them, but I would like to hear from other advanced keepers advice to help keep this spider as safely as possible.

The capabilities of OW's is what many find "alluring" lol. High risk, high reward. Pokies aren't that bad if you don't go out of your way to annoy them or spook them. The only time I recieved a threat posture from a pokie was when I opened the blinds and the light hit my P Met's cage. Never got a single strike from any during a rehouse.
Just keep calm, get your husbandry right, and don't leave your cage wide open. You turn, cage closed, you leave close the cage.

My P met bolted once and that's when she was young and it didn't end in disaster. Don't hold a venomous animal. Common sense practices lol

 

[MediterraneanSpiderDaddy1]

You really have some beautiful girls in your collection. Thank-you for sharing.

Do you keep more, or are these a few of your favorites? The A. Geniculata is gorgeous and I love the hide you have for your curly. I would probably get a curly next if I had the space. I own an avic (Peru Purple), but I wasn't able to pick her up from the breeder during the last expo in my city because of a snowstorm. The breeder is kindly taking care of her for me until the next local expo. When I'm finally able to pick her up at the end of the month, I'll have a small but awesome spider family.

So you got nailed by your OBT some time in the past. Yikes. Two weeks of pain, huh? That does not sound fun. Was it constant, intermittent, etc? It seems like different people have different symptoms, which is really interesting. I only recently learned through my research that the muscle cramping that OW venom can cause can lead to rhabdomyolysis, which I somehow became prone to in my early-30's. Last time I had it, I was in the hospital for more than two weeks and needed dialysis. I've had norovirus a few times in my life and it was that level of misery for weeks, with no break. Since learning that, I'm now considering giving my beautiful blue boots to a deserving keeper. I've experienced tarrible pain in my life and it's a risk I'm willing to take, but ending up in the ICU with kidney failure is something I never want to repeat. It sucks, but I may never be able to keep OW species for this reason. Letting her go will be hard if that's what I decide.

Of all the beauties in those photos, which is your favorite to keep?

BTW, good luck on the Bar exam if that's what you still have to do to become a practicing attorney. I had to choose between law and education a long time ago and I chose education, not predicting the wave of anti-intellectualism that was about to sweep across the West. That and COVID have made the field one of the most stressful, undercompensated and underappreciated professions out there. I should have gone to law school, lol.

Absolutely!

So these 5 are the only ones I have right now. I’m easing my way back into the hobby after a career induced hiatus. I have a litany of others that I’m in process of getting. My next goal is an M. Balfouri colony of at least 50 Ts because reasons. . Avics are fun. My next Avics I want are the versicolor and Goliath pink toe A. Braun.

Yes so my OBT was spunky enough that she envenomated. Within 10-15 minutes of the bite my arm burnt with nerve pain and I had some pretty intense muscle spasms. Had fever and nasuea. I took Aspirin and Benadryl to counter as much of the venom as possible. It took about a day for the pain to chill out, but the residual effects on nerves lasted around 2 weeks. This is all coming from a T that I have handled few times before. Out of her cage she was a honey. I ABSOLUTELY don’t recommend handling OWs of course. It’s just a fascination of bonding with Ts that I partake in from time to time in a safe manner. You a CHAMP though having dealt with Rhabdo. That just sounds horrible! I will say if you are immunocompromised, please be super safe. There is always a possibility the peptides of OW venom could have a profound effect on you. Heck buy you some welding gloves and get good with them. T would have a time penetrating them lol.

Of these Ts, the Geniculata. I love the big Ts. A Gens and L. Parahybana, the salmon pink bird eater, are my two absolute favorite big Ts. I have had mature female T. Blondis and Apophysis… amazing beasts. I just don’t like dealing with their enclosure requirements. They can be a real pain.

I appreciate it! Yes two semesters and the BAR and I’m done. I served in the Army for 12 years then moved over to civilian law enforcement. Between my time as a Military Police Soldier and a civilian police officer I’ve been in the field almost 23 years. Getting my J.D. and becoming a prosecutor just seemed like the natural evolution for me. You are truly blessed for having become an educator. You are correct on your summation sadly. As far as law school over education… I’ll say you truly have to be called to both… at almost 41, I had to look at a LOT of the law candidates like, “What makes you think you have the credible life experience to practice law???” The 35+ year old students faired exceptionally better than the younger ones lol.