When to know you are ready for the "next level"

[Katastrop]

Hi. I'm relatively new to the T hobby, but have been raising reptiles for the last 5 years. I got one T and within a month it bloomed to 12. I love it, I'm excited, and I love that I'm excited. I have been obsessively doing research, reading or watching anything I can get my hands on. It's quite easy to spot who knows what they are talking about, who is just for shock value, or who is just out for subs. And of course everyone has their opinion, which does not make it fact or science within the hobby. There are many that just regurgitate information without learning the information themselves. There's quite a bit of knowledge I already learned with the reptiles. Concepts like humidity management are not new to me. I've also never been scared of spiders or inverts. So I'm struggling with this concept of "beginners, intermediate, and advanced". Ok, something is classified as "intermediate" because it's fast, defensive, or needs humidity. So what? If you're fine with fast, defensive, and understand humidity, why is it a bad idea even if you are relatively new? At what point do you know you are ready for an "intermediate" or later for an "advanced". Is there a length of time? A matter of experience? A matter of knowledge? I may be new to tarantulas, but some of the treatment for beginners is a little condescending. I'm not joe smith who decided to just up and get a spider out of nowhere with no exotics experience. I'm not a mom of an 8yr old who wants a T. Can someone explain? I'm not saying I'm ready, I don't even know what I don't know at this stage, I'm just trying to figure this out. Thanks.

 

[Stu Macher]

One of my 1st T's was a P metallica. I now have many OW's. I say buy what you want but do your research and know your limits. If it doesn't feel safe it isn't safe. If your reluctant, just wait. It's that simple for me.

I don't mind the ladder system because Psalmopoeus is a main proponent and I love that genus. But many have started with OW's and are fine.

Unless your committed to the hobby, please don't get a ton of T's to arrive at some point.

Is there a specific genus are you considering in the future?

 

[Andrew Clayton]

Hi. I'm relatively new to the T hobby, but have been raising reptiles for the last 5 years. I got one T and within a month it bloomed to 12. I love it, I'm excited, and I love that I'm excited. I have been obsessively doing research, reading or watching anything I can get my hands on. It's quite easy to spot who knows what they are talking about, who is just for shock value, or who is just out for subs. And of course everyone has their opinion, which does not make it fact or science within the hobby. There are many that just regurgitate information without learning the information themselves. There's quite a bit of knowledge I already learned with the reptiles. Concepts like humidity management are not new to me. I've also never been scared of spiders or inverts. So I'm struggling with this concept of "beginners, intermediate, and advanced". Ok, something is classified as "intermediate" because it's fast, defensive, or needs humidity. So what? If you're fine with fast, defensive, and understand humidity, why is it a bad idea even if you are relatively new? At what point do you know you are ready for an "intermediate" or later for an "advanced". Is there a length of time? A matter of experience? A matter of knowledge? I may be new to tarantulas, but some of the treatment for beginners is a little condescending. I'm not joe smith who decided to just up and get a spider out of nowhere with no exotics experience. I'm not a mom of an 8yr old who wants a T. Can someone explain? I'm not saying I'm ready, I don't even know what I don't know at this stage, I'm just trying to figure this out. Thanks.

Think it has more to do with being more prepared mentally and what to expect sort of thing, most old world T's are actually very easy to keep and rehouse when you have already done it a hundred times. Obviously it doesn't matter how prepared you can be there can still be misshaps, this is where the experience comes into play someone who has only kept a couple of Ts even for a few years will only have done a few rehouses at most and would more than likely panic and loose the old world T somewhere, with the experience this risk is minimised, that is why you work you're way up to old world. Now with the humidity dependent species you mentioned the advanced ones of these are mainly new world like the Threaphosa genus so it's a different ladder system basically.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Hi. I'm relatively new to the T hobby, but have been raising reptiles for the last 5 years. I got one T and within a month it bloomed to 12. I love it, I'm excited, and I love that I'm excited. I have been obsessively doing research, reading or watching anything I can get my hands on. It's quite easy to spot who knows what they are talking about, who is just for shock value, or who is just out for subs. And of course everyone has their opinion, which does not make it fact or science within the hobby. There are many that just regurgitate information without learning the information themselves. There's quite a bit of knowledge I already learned with the reptiles. Concepts like humidity management are not new to me. I've also never been scared of spiders or inverts. So I'm struggling with this concept of "beginners, intermediate, and advanced". Ok, something is classified as "intermediate" because it's fast, defensive, or needs humidity. So what? If you're fine with fast, defensive, and understand humidity, why is it a bad idea even if you are relatively new? At what point do you know you are ready for an "intermediate" or later for an "advanced". Is there a length of time? A matter of experience? A matter of knowledge? I may be new to tarantulas, but some of the treatment for beginners is a little condescending. I'm not joe smith who decided to just up and get a spider out of nowhere with no exotics experience. I'm not a mom of an 8yr old who wants a T. Can someone explain? I'm not saying I'm ready, I don't even know what I don't know at this stage, I'm just trying to figure this out. Thanks.

A lot of people that keep herps wind up getting invertebrates, tarantulas in this case. IMO it gives a person a little more advantage. That advantage is dealing with animals that can strike or move extremely fast and that is where it stops.

While air humidity applies to reptiles it does not apply to tarantulas and other invertebrates.

One other note is just as the herp community wants to protect the image of responsible keeping so does arachnoculture. Many people that never kept reptiles that jump into tarantulas first will use the ladder system.

Where this applies will be doing rehouses for the majority of it.

It's easier starting with New World terrestrials with rehousing first as if a mistake happens the T bolts out of the enclosure. If the T bolts onto you and your bit it's not about the venom. The bite wound needs to be sanitized against infection, naturally.

While all tarantulas can move fast as having 8 legs will provide that some T's are at the top of fast. I have one Tapinauchenius violaceus that is referred as a teleporter, (self explanatory). The biggest threat it poses is if it escapes when I open the front door of it's enclosure I would not know. It would eventually die after time and that is the biggest threat.

With OW's it's the venom, speed and first reaction is to bite. Being inexperienced in rehousing OW's, getting bit followed by an ER visit can catch the attention of local news outlets. Hence the negative attention brought into arachnoculture as a whole.

I've been bit by a medically significant true spider back in the 80's and the venom effects sucked. That was followed by a severe infection and after two weeks before seeing a doctor the whole side of my face swelled three times over. It was utter misery.

With that said getting tagged by any Poecilotheria and envenomated would be alot worse than the venom effects I suffered minus the infection from that true spider bite.

For me I prefer the ladder system as it's not a race or competition in arachnoculture.

I most certainly want many OW's but due to people living with me that have compromised immune systems it would be irresponsible especially if a rehouse went south and it's loose in the house.

So the biggest issues starting with OW first will be lack of experience with husbandry. If you manage to have successful rehouses you have to hope you don't kill it with poor husbandry with their enclosure setup and maintaining it. Some are very fragile, you make a minor mistake in their setup and you can have a dead T.

These are some of my aspects and there are others to it.

Most people are only going to learn by having them. I mean there's Arachnoboards for information and help but there's no coach by your side in your home instructing you on how to proceed.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

Esoteric symbolism in your dreams.

 

[Mustafa67]

Hi. I'm relatively new to the T hobby, but have been raising reptiles for the last 5 years. I got one T and within a month it bloomed to 12. I love it, I'm excited, and I love that I'm excited. I have been obsessively doing research, reading or watching anything I can get my hands on. It's quite easy to spot who knows what they are talking about, who is just for shock value, or who is just out for subs. And of course everyone has their opinion, which does not make it fact or science within the hobby. There are many that just regurgitate information without learning the information themselves. There's quite a bit of knowledge I already learned with the reptiles. Concepts like humidity management are not new to me. I've also never been scared of spiders or inverts. So I'm struggling with this concept of "beginners, intermediate, and advanced". Ok, something is classified as "intermediate" because it's fast, defensive, or needs humidity. So what? If you're fine with fast, defensive, and understand humidity, why is it a bad idea even if you are relatively new? At what point do you know you are ready for an "intermediate" or later for an "advanced". Is there a length of time? A matter of experience? A matter of knowledge? I may be new to tarantulas, but some of the treatment for beginners is a little condescending. I'm not joe smith who decided to just up and get a spider out of nowhere with no exotics experience. I'm not a mom of an 8yr old who wants a T. Can someone explain? I'm not saying I'm ready, I don't even know what I don't know at this stage, I'm just trying to figure this out. Thanks.

Depends how comfortable you are with rehousings, the T bolting, the speed of the next T, sensitivity to hairs and venom (if OW).

If you had only 1 T for 12 months I wouldn’t suggest jumping to a P metallica. What T do you keep?

 

[Wolfram1]

i recommend stopping to buy another spider/animal for at least 3 months after each purchase (pace yourself)

otherwise you are just feeding your addiction rather than enjoying what you have treated yourself with, but i do get it believe me

compared to other pets they are cheap, easy to care for and at least initially take very little space, so it is easy to overload yourself unknowingly. Its not enough to be able to care for them well when your interest is at an all time high, you need to be able to do so continously year after year without it getting to be too much or your interest wanders more towards reptiles again.

there is no such thing as "beginner", "intermediate" or "advanced" if you are an adult and do the research to determine if you can manage their care and set them up properly, have read through the bite reports and know the risks you CAN start with any of them sucessfully. Its just that many of the people who decide they are ready are really overestimating themselves and it usually shows.

in any case, those "terms" are more useful for impulse buyers that only do very basic research. They give you a generalized order of difficulty & risk. Not just difficulty.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I missed out on a female P. regalis because I admitted to the seller that it was my "first level". I still regret that decision. At least I'm now working on a female P. ornata. There are ways to do rehousings with essentially zero chances of escapes. Catch cups, gloveboxes, etc.

 

[l4nsky]

To put it succinctly:

There isn't much difference between teaching someone to walk a tightrope when it's 1' off the ground or when it's 150' off the ground.

The consequences of failure differ significantly though. It's not impossible to start at that height, but it's not necessarily wise either.