why'd you start keeping t's

[xBurntBytheSunx]

i'm a psychology student so i'm always interested in trying to understand "why" people do things.

i got mine b/c i really wanted a pet and my room mate didn't want a cat and a T seemed like a good choice for a low maintanence pet that my room mate wouldn't have to interact with. i imagine i'll end up ordering a couple more b/c i'm been totally mezmerized by the one i have now and it is so easy to take care of. also i already have to take a trip to the pet store once a week to buy crickets so i might as well have a few more t's to feed and make it more worth my while, and also i need something to take care of or spend my time on besides video games or watching movies since i'll be in school for probably another four years and i get sick of the same old stuff. i find its interesting that even though i spend almost no time and have almost no desire to keep my apt or car clean that i have the desire to take care of something (probably an inborn trait of my personality, i doubt its one i've been socialized into).

 

[luther]

I bought mine to make sure that my children don't grow up with an irrational fear of spiders. My mother used to go ballistic at the sight of the smallest arachnid when I was a child. My sister picked up her reaction and still can't stand them. It makes me so proud when my daughter comes to find me, clutching a huge house spider and grinning madly.

Of course, as soon as I had bought one of these fascinating creatures I had to buy another. And another. Now, maybe just a couple more. You know how it goes.

 

[Weapon-X]

re

i gt into collecting t's because all my life i have had an intrest in predatory animals, and at fisrt i was keeping reptiles for a long time and got sick of always cleaning cages and buying mice, so i started keeping t's because their not messy, their quiet, require little care, and heck now i lke them better than reps lol way better--Jeff

 

[Gillian]

Well,
I tend to start my next pursuit because of fear. I was horribly, terribly scared of spiders of all kinds. I went to a reptile expo here, and was compelled to have tarantulas, to end this (what I felt), unreasonable fear.

Next up, sky diving or Bungie jumping, to end my fear of heights.
Peace,
Gillian

 

[Maggie]

My reasons for starting with T's was two fold. It was partly as a cure for my arachnophobia and since I saw my children (with the exception of my youngest) headed that direction too, it was also so they would not have that fear.

 

[atmosphere]

Me I have just always liked animals.I like to observe local spiders as well. So getting a tarantula was just another around the house to watch.And that leads me to want other tarantula to see more behavior of them e.g. aboreal,terestrial,burrowers,and other T's with there own behaviors.

 

[ines68]

I always have a lot of animals, and always like Ts... but never had one until last month when I see a post in a auction site about baby pinktoes and saw it was a good begining. Now I have 5 Ts and they are the best pets... low maintenance, do not smell, do not need much space and they are very interesting for learning and investigating

Like the rest, always want another T, I think is like a collection

Ines

 

[L_mactans]

I was first interested in Spiders in general at the age of 12, mostly on how extrodinarily different they were to anything else. I adopted a couple of eggsacs after my mother killed their mother. Days later, as they hatched, I felt my first maternal instinct.

A couple of years later I saw an episode of Tales From the Crypt, and they had a B. smithi walking across the table. I know it was supposed to be scary, but all I could focus on was how gorgeous she was and how elegantly she made her way across the skull =D . After that I was hooked. And have never looked back.

 

[chuck]

when i was younger my cousin used to keep true spiders he found outside in a mayonase jar. they would spin nice webs and he would go out and catch its prey.
ever since then i wanted something like that
sure the preditory aspect was a plus
and also, my lease doesnt allow me to have dogs or cats

ps - girls that say they hate the spiders and would never look at them, they will be the first ones to ask to see them, and i keep my Ts in my bedroom

 

[Love to Foxtrot]

I actually bought my first tarantula several years ago after seeing her (an adult female G. rosea) at a pet store. I don't remember exactly what made me want to buy her, I think I just saw her and fell in love. Considering the fact that when I was a little kid I used to look for bugs to catch and keep constantly, this was not an unusual choice for me. Invertebrates and reptiles have always fascinated me. The stranger that the bug looked, the more I wanted to catch it! I had that tarantula for several years untill she passed away, and I got out of the hobby. A number of years passed and my passion for animals and inverts faded a little, untill we got Dish Network TV! That revived my passion for pets, and I began buying reptiles. It only took me going to two reptile shows and seeing the tarantulas before I had to have one again, and I bought my spiderling approx. two months ago! Now I am planning on REALLY getting into the hobby and can't wait to buy my next one, and the one after that, and the one after that,...

Aubrey

 

[Joanie]

I was always into insects and kept anything I could catch when I was a kid. Tarantulas seemed kind of cool, and I remember holding one at some animal show at the library when I was about 5 or 6, but it never occurred to me to get my own. Then when I was in college, my entomology prof and advisor was an arachnologist, and she had a pretty respectable collection of t's in her office. Within a few months of meeting her and seeing her t's, I'd bought my own rosehair.

I guess the appeal, to me, was that they were every bit as convenient and fascinating to keep as insects, yet had the cute fuzziness of a kitten, with some cool predatory scariness thrown in. Perfect pet!

Joanie

 

[Love to Foxtrot]

correction

Well, I bought my first sling two months ago, and got the sling that I talk about now approx. a month ago.

Aubrey

 

[cweg]

I have always kept animals. Snakes, lizards, turtles, fish. I had a eastern corn snake that I raised from a baby and she died after 12 years. After that I thought I still wanted prdatory animal, but something to take up less space and maintenence. T's were the perfect critter for me.

 

[Nixy]

The twins did it.
Simple as that.
They expressed a desire for a spider.
Started them with two rosies.
They fell in love.
I fell in love.
The rest is history.

 

[abstract]

Graduated College - 1st new apt - wanted a pet - something small, could live in a cage, and a little different than you're run-of-the-mill variety.

I looked at lizards, but because of the care requirements, I decided on a spider. Did a TON of research, and way OVER-pampered my first rosie - bought her a log hide, her own temp/hygro gauges, own lamp/heating pad etc.....

I became enthralled with the oddities of her behavior - webbing, eating, handling, burrowing - but most of the time she just sat there. About 2 months passed.....

Then I found Botar - who has LOTS of spiders, and lives close to me. Saw his setup, got a few additional spiders from him, and simplified my per-spider setup.

Now I have 7, and plan on increasing until I have filled up my spider display case (I think might have a max capacity of about 16 full-size guys).

 

[Godzilla2000]

Quite honestly, I started keeping Tarantulas when I found there were no Emperor Scorpions at my Petshop at the time. It all started with the one Chilean Rosehair. Then it became an addiction. Even now I just got back from purchasing myself a Brachypelma smithi.

 

[caligulathegod]

About seven years ago, I got a Firebird and wanted an obscure horror movie title for a vanity license plate. I remembered this film I'd seen at a 24 hour horror marathon a few years before called "Spider Baby" with Lon Chaney, Jr. So, I got the licence and a week or two later I won a plush spider in one of those claw machines to put in my car. A month later, I was at the Cincinnati Museum of Science and Industry and they had these realistic brooches of spiders so I got a nursery web spider (fitting with my Spider Baby car) and have it suspended by a wire and suction cup (which originally suspended a Death Star) to appear from behind my rear view mirror. I also had a brass spiderweb with a brass and crystal spider in it in the upper corner of the windshield(a prophetic gift from a friend, years ago). One thing led to another and my car was filled with spider toys, from beanie babies to flocked halloween spiders. I must have a dozen and a half spider toys in my car (including a black velvet teddy bear with silver spider webs all over it. I'll post a pic when I can). One year, in an old apartment I had, I did up the entire living room as a giant spider web with streamers. Now, everyone knows I'm obsessed with spiders. My girlfriend decided to get me a tarantula. I now have an adult A seemanni (f) and sling B smithi (f), T blondi[/] (m), and C cyaneopubescens (?).

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Nothing is more satisfying than having a tarantula climb up the back of your neck and licking you behind the ears.





Jon

 

[vulpina]

I have always had a fascination with spiders. As a child we would have the fattest spiders in Ohio because I would spend alot of time observing and feeding the local fauna. Any type of animal interests me, insects to mammals, so it was a natural progression to buy T's. I will sometimes use my snakes, lizards and T's to teach kids (local boy/girl scouts and so on).

Andy

 

[schlinkey]

I've had a fascination for spiders since i was old enough to hold a pencil and scribble one on a paper, while not true artworks, they were the first things i actually drew on paper never really thought about actually gettin a T until about a year or so ago. Predatory animals are awesome, and Ts, well, one can actually keep em at home and observe their behaviour and hunting habits! so whoopey!