Spider owners tips, feed videos and BS

Lol next time. It's really challenging to get scorpions to eat. They struggle to catch stuff compared to tarantulas that instantly pounce for the kill.

 

I'm curious what you do if there were an earthquake or something and you found all your spiders and scorpions had escaped their cages...do you have a contingency plan in place lol, like a home demolition button or house wide bug bomb

 

Well I'm in Virginia so slim chances of a significant earthquake.

 

HaHa!! Burn that MFer down and start over.

 

@boogie3478

Ever have any casualties mating your spiders?

 

I've never had a mature male and female of the same species at the same time. Even if I did I'm not sure I would try to mate them since I don't know what I'd do with 100+ baby tarantulas.

EDIT: I'd give 1 baby tarantula to @Pinay

 

Chilobrachys fimbriatus showing the cool tiger stripes on the abdomen.

 

I feel like such an asshole. I rehoused my psalmopoeus cambridgei tarantula today since there was a slight mold problem in her enclosure. After getting her into the new enclosure she proceeded to molt about an hour later! So in addition to the natural stress of undergoing the molting process, I added the stress of a rehouse. Honestly had no idea she was that close to molting. Looks like she's doing fine now though. Pic tomorrow.

 

I use to keep and breed alot of reptiles when I was young. Paid rent a few times by selling baby chameleons, get 40 or so at a time at 20 a pop. I worked at a large scale reptile breeder/dealer for a few years. Thousands of reptiles and amphibians, everything from little dart frogs to 20 foot boids and 8 foot monitors. Went to the hospital twice from getting bit or ripped open by 6 footers ( water monitor and an iguana). It was called The East Bay Vivarium for any real herp guys out there, you might know of it. Moved onto rattlesnake removal to help pay college loans before becoming a wildlife biologist. I've done a good amount of dangerous animal handling over the years (rattlesnakes to eagles). I tell you all this because all you people with old world tarantulas are fucking nuts. I use to keep alot of new world species because in general for tarantulas they have urticating hairs and that's their first line of defense, they are less aggressive, and venoms are less toxic typically. Had a lot of Brachypelma, Avicularia, and Aphonopelma species. Also had a big old daddy, Teddy Roosevelt's Goliath (Theraposa blondi) I raised from a little girl to a big mama. At work we had all the nasty old world species, no urticating hairs, first defense is to bite, and most species were more aggressive compared to new world species. I would handle large aggressive snakes like anacondas and lizards like monitors and tegus, but fucking baboon and ornate tarantulas would make me nervous. One of the owners got bit by some Poecilothera species (ornate, old world) and he was fucked. He occasionally would shake and have events from the neortoxin, years after the incident. I met a lot of owners over the years dealing with loose tarantulas because after years of keeping them something happened and one got out.

Anyways, much respect to all you keeping the old world species. At the store we had a policy to only sell them to experienced people. For any new keepers that go straight to an old world species, you are crazy. There are so many new world species that have phenotypes aesthetically pleasing (blues, purples, etc) as the old world species, which seems to a big selling point for them. For example, Avicularia versicolor. Cool arboreal species that is typically more visible in your tank and not always hidden like alot of terrestrial species. I had a couple that looked like this:





Apologies if this was already covered, but yall nuts.
@Pinay your a new keeper with an ornate? No way in hell we would have sold you that.

I was also able to handle all the species I owned with little concern, behavior wise. If it bit it would hurt but nothing of concern.

 

Teddy Roosevelt had one.

 

Damn you Crow. Just read this whole thread reminiscing about the old days.

@boogie3478 nice collection. I had a lot of what you had except for these old world fuckers above. I use to run our spider racks and I worked with these species, but only because I got paid to do so

This isn't necessarily true. I personally know a guy (mentioned above) with nerve damage from a a poecilotheria bite. I consider nerve damage or muscle damage dangerous to humans. Dont get me wrong, I really dig arachnids, even those old world fuckers

 

Hopefully @Pinay doesnt get into snakes.

Pet Store: Hi how can we help you?
Pinay: I want to get my first snake.
Pet Store: we recommend a corn snake or ball python for your first snake.
Pinay: Fuck that, I want some kind of viper, preferably a neurotoxin-hemotoxic hybrid venom, that has pretty colors.

 

Mamba!

 

I appreciate your concerns. But being new doesn’t mean I lack the respect for these animals and that I haven’t learned what I can before acquiring them.
It is my intent to observe, feed and care for these fascinating species and handling them isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

 

I meant lethal

 

I know Monet. I'm not saying you dont respect them. I can see by yours and Boogie response and lack of likes my comedy failed again . Perhaps next time I'll stick with expression of a shared interest only.

 

/unsub

 

Spider thunder dome. 2 spiders enter...

 

Lol, I wasn't here in the first place!