Top 5 Tarantulas for Pets/Education

[Tangled WWWeb]

Originally posted by Rookie
To Joy, and JP, and others who actually do demonstrations and such with Tarantulas, do you allow the crowd to handle your more docile species?
Paul

It has been some years since I've done demonstrations. While I was in college ( in the early 90's), I worked at one of those God- awful mall pet store chains. We frequently got requests from teachers to do presentations. The higher-ups saw this as an oppotunity to drum up sales, and would send a couple of my co-workers and I out armed with animals and flyers. I was the resident " tarantula expert" and was therefore responsible for everything pertaining to them. I definitely did not want it to be my fault that someone's child was bitten by a tarantula. Since most of the tarantulas were mine personally, I didn't want someone's child harming them either. I often let the school faculty handle the spider ( they usually declined) but generally not the children.

As far as your situation is concerned, I think Mister Internet brought up some valid points. You have to decide whether you trust them not to harm the spider and vice-versa. From what I've seen, most people that express an interest in holding the T are probably not going to sling it across the room. There are always exceptions. There are also exceptions when declaring a species " docile". One of the worst feelings I experienced while working at the pet store ( there were many I assure you) was when a couple and their teen-age son came back in to show me the bite that their " docile" P. scrofa ( they were calling them Dwarf Rose hairs back then) had given him. I can't say that he didn't provoke the bite- but he was bitten nonetheless.

 

[Immortal_sin]

I NEVER allow the kids to hold my spiders, except on rare occasions, Shelby has. And it was the A versicolor. 1st and 2nd graders don't have much self control
Actually, even adults don't, if they are nervous.
I will bring out a couple spiders, but the children must sit 'criss cross applesauce' and not move. If they get rowdy, the T goes back in the container.
I would never forgive myself if somebody dropped one of my spiders and it died

 

[Joy]

Originally posted by Rookie
To Joy, and JP, and others who actually do demonstrations and such with Tarantulas, do you allow the crowd to handle your more docile species? Aren't you ever concerned that they may drop the T, or perhaps, due to a shakey limb, provoke a bite?
Some of my friends want to handle Peso when I start to, and I tell them I will let them once I know exactly what to expect from Peso, and what to do if any situation should arise. I'm not really worried about a bite, I started with a Pulchra for that very reason, but I would be a little worried about a drop suffered by a terrestrial species.
Paul

Normally I don't allow others to hold my spiders, for the reasons others have listed. I'm just not comfortable with the risk to the spider if dropped (and to the student if bitten). At a recent demo for some middle school students, however, I brought along an elderly male Avic I had of whose temperament I am 100% certain and allowed those students who expressed an interest to handle him. They had to sit on the floor while it was going on, and I explained first that though the spider wouldn't hurt them, they could hurt the spider (obviously the risk was much less since he was an arboreal, but I still wanted them to be careful).

Their reaction to holding him was just amazing, and I have to say it has made me re-think my no-handling policy to some extent. The experience of actually touching that spider impressed them far more with the beauty and non-threatening nature of these creatures (yes, I did make disclaimers as to species and individual temperament ) than words alone could have done. I still don't know that I would risk handling as a general rule, but it certainly paid off enormously on this occasion in terms of positive tarantula PR. But since the possibility of negative PR in equal or greater proportion exists also when handling is attempted, you'd have to take that into account in the cost/benefit analysis, and how do you do a cost/benefit analysis with something as intangible as public opinion? Here's where I let the question lie for wiser heads than my own!

Joy

 

[King_Looey]

I only let my family hold my spiders. As all the males in our family, plus my sister of course, have been around them for a long time. Even my 3 uncles have kept reptiles before.

 

[skinheaddave]

Originally posted by kellygirl
2. Costa Rican Zebra (if this is the pet store 'stripeknee' then these are supposed to be really nice... but i may have the wrong name for em)

Like Jacen, I have never seen a handleable A.seemani. My two are very fast and flighty. Sweet looking spider, though.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[kellygirl]

so which species is the one that ends up in pet stores so often? they usually look kinda shabby in there but i bet if they were taken care of properly they would be nice...

kellygirl

 

[Mojo Jojo]

IME

At regular petstores, I see more G. rosea than anything else. After that, I see common A. avicularia, A. seemani/B. albilosums (Tie).

When you start getting into more of the exotics, then I see H. lividum, P. murinus orange form, and C. cyanopubescens.

At exotic petstores, I usually start to see alot more of the pretty Brachypelma species, especially smithi then going to the many different variations of a red leg.

Big DRagonfly

 

[skinheaddave]

Originally posted by kellygirl
so which species is the one that ends up in pet stores so often? they usually look kinda shabby in there but i bet if they were taken care of properly they would be nice...

kellygirl

Well, other than the G.rosea, I think the A.seemani is probably the most frequently occuring. That seems to be the concensus on the board, anyhow. Perhaps you got the impression they were docile from seeing them in pet stores. Usualy pet store inverts are no the most active.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Immortal_sin]

Originally posted by skinheaddave
Usualy pet store inverts are no the most active.

Cheers,
Dave

boy, I'll say! Went to Petco yesterday to pick up some things, and of course stopped by the Ts to look at them. They had a 'Kilamanjaro baboon' ...looked like a Ceratogyrus spp or something, but anyway..it was dead, poor thing!
I pointed that out to them. Pretty little spider too, and a female to boot! I made the guy get her out so I could see, and turned her over, sure enough..it was a girl. I felt really bad...must have died of dehydration

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

Originally posted by Immortal_sin
boy, I'll say! Went to Petco yesterday to pick up some things, and of course stopped by the Ts to look at them. They had a 'Kilamanjaro baboon' ...looked like a Ceratogyrus spp or something, but anyway..it was dead, poor thing!
I pointed that out to them. Pretty little spider too, and a female to boot! I made the guy get her out so I could see, and turned her over, sure enough..it was a girl. I felt really bad...must have died of dehydration

That is too bad. At least they got it out. I argued with a store for a couple weeks about an obviously dead King baboon that was " just molting".

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Petco -- Where the pets go.

Maybe should be:

Petco -- Where the t's go...to die?

Big Dragonfly