Shaky hands while feeding and rehousing

[Denxak]

Hello everyone. I am new to this hobby and experience such issue: I have tremors while feeding and rehousing my tarantula. Actually I feel pretty anxious during these processes because of fear that my pet can be harmed because of my incompetence or escape from its enclosure. Will confidence come with practice or there is some other factor which I don't see?

 

[ConstantSorrow]

At least for rehousing, I think part of it is preparation. If you are working in a bin/bathtub, have all your supplies at hand (tongs, paintbrush, catch cup), and decent lighting, it vastly reduces the chances that you'll run into a problem you can't immediately and easily deal with. That can help with confidence a lot.

I'm new at this too. I take a deep breath and say "I can do this". And you know.....my last rehouse, the sling bolted and ran up the tongs, refused to go into the new enclosure, and once I got it in there....it almost ran straight out the other side. But it was ok. Even if it had gotten away, it was in the bathtub and I knew the catch cup was next to my leg. So I remained (mostly) calm and it all worked out. But I think the folks who have been keeping Ts longer will probably have better advice for you.

 

[FrmDaLeftCoast]

Preparation is a must. I'd also recommend the use of some sort of gloves, long sleeve shirt, etc. I personally use my cut resistant work gloves. It makes picking up a feeder that fell from your tongs or a sling climbing on you a lot less stressful. lol

 

[coolnweird]

It took me months to stop shaking when doing maintenance on my first tarantula! Some of it is preparation, but I bet once you have a bit more experience, you won't be as nervous. It might help to think of it like this: tarantulas are wild animals. Their natural habitats are full of predators, temperature fluctuations, extreme weather, fall risks, etc. Comparatively, there are very few risks to your tarantula in captivity. It's pretty unlikely that you'll do something to hurt your spider, even as an inexperienced keeper, as long as you're being cautious.

 

[Royalty]

Make sure you do not have low blood sugar either. If you have an empty stomach, it can make any nervous symptoms in my experience.