Just Got a Rose Hair Today!

[Sonicookie]

I just got a Rose Hair today. I set up the container. I have Coco Soft and Eco Earth for substrate, half a dozen crickets, Flucker's Orange Cube cricket food, a Critter Keeper, a cup tipped over (half buried in substrate), a water fish with rocks in it.

She (I don't know what gender it is, but I'm calling it she) is just in the top corner of the cage, not moving. But I heard they do that when they're stressed/don't know where to hide, which would be understandable since she just got here.

Any advice?

 

[Enn49]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

 

[VanessaS]

Hi there. Many hobbyists started out with the same species - including me. There is a lot of information available to you and a lot of people familiar with them.
Keep the substrate very dry for this species. Let them settle in a bit because it sometimes takes a bit of time before they are comfortable. If you have all the crickets inside their enclosure right now, please remove them. Keep the crickets in a separate container and only feed them one at a time. If they don't eat them within a few hours to a day, take them out again. Having crickets inside their enclosure, when they have no intentions of eating them, will stress them out a great deal. If the spider starts to moult, they can be very dangerous as well.
They will often go long periods without eating. I would suggest that you only buy a couple of crickets at a time and see if they are in the mood to eat them. The rest will just go to waste... unless you have another spider to pick up the slack (which is a B. albopilosum in my house).
Depending on their size, they will often be out and about.
Welcome!

 

[Kymura]

Hi and welcome
Have a couple of G porteri and a rosea,
Extremely easy to keep if you just follow the simple above written instructions, basically,
^ keep it dry ^ don't stress when it doesn't eat, just offer again another day.
^ keep a good amount of substrate in its enclosure. These guys are terrestrial, so if they climb they could injure themselves falling. Give it some good deep sub and keep sharp objects out of there.
I personally continue to offer a clean water dish which all but one of mine bury. At one point one of mine had five in there...somewhere..:/
Just enjoy your new T, everyone here is more then willing to help, don't ever be afraid to ask questions here
Also,pictures are ALWAYS enjoyed and welcomed ~.^

 

[Sonicookie]

Thanks! And yeah, I heard about the crickets(i got half a dozen). The girl at the pet store had put a small one in (which seemed to have died while it was in the container with the T?), but she didn't eat it. So i planned to wait at least a few days before giving her food.

I'm keeping the substrate dry, but I didn't find out that they don't like it fluffy before it was too late. She's still on the wall (and has been there overnight), should I be worried she doesn't like the substrate, or does it always take a long time for rose hairs to come down? And, if it is because she doesn't like the substrate, what should I do?

(Her name is Aranea by the way!)

 

[Sonicookie]

I got a few pictures, too. The cage is still cat proofed (since I just got up), so there's only one hole that you can look through, but she's right there, so I took a few pictures.

(I accidentally put in waay too many of one, but I'm not sure how to remove them so I'm just leaving them there)

And here is the container she came in.

 

[MassExodus]

Here's a very good write up on G rosea by the author of the Tarantula Keepers Guide http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html .
It's kind of a must read for people new to keeping them.

 

[Sonicookie]

Here's a very good write up on G rosea by the author of the Tarantula Keepers Guide http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/roses.html .
It's kind of a must read for people new to keeping them.

Thanks! It looks pretty good so far, so I'll have to read it.

* * * * * * *

Aranea was walking! She's just sitting in a corner again, though. Also, how bothered are they by light? Like, if you shine a flashlight in for a few seconds, would it irritate her, or would she not really care? I'm mostly wondering about it because it's pretty dark in the cage right now, so if I wanted to look at something, I'd need more light.

 

[Thistles]

They're not as bothered by light as many other tarantulas. Go for it!

I'd add more substrate. Get it a little damp, then pack it down really well. She won't like the moisture but it will dry out soon enough. She looks like she's got pretty coloring - maybe even a true rosea - but I can't tell from just that picture. Get us more pics!

 

[VanessaS]

Someone described that as the 'lounging' position. They'll do that a lot. I would give more substrate as well. Make the surface closer to the top of the enclosure to avoid any injuries if she falls while exploring the sides.

 

[Sonicookie]

Should I try to carefully add and pack down more subsrate while she's in there, or take her her out for a few minutes? I still have the container she came in, and it's lid. Here's a picture from when I first got her, though it's not very good.

Here she is in her cage again, Which I took sometime yesterday. I have another good one, but I can't figure out how to get it (It's stored in the cloud and I'm on a Kindle Fire). It's cloudy today, but if it gets sunny maybe I'll try to take more pictures.

Also, how often shoukd I clean the water dish?

(MassExodus: I still need to read all of that turantula guide you posted!)

 

[Thistles]

I'd remove her gently to add more substrate. Just put the container over her and slide a stiff card or something underneath and set her aside. Looking at those pics I think she probably is a Grammostola porteri but it's still a little hard to tell. Tarantulas look beautiful under natural light, so a sunlit photoshoot would be great! Enjoy her!

 

[Sonicookie]

I had some rocks in the water dish, and today I noticed one of them was pretty far away from the dish now. Would the T have moved it? It's near the corner that she was squishing into at one point (there's a bit of a hole dug in that corner now, from her squishing into it).

I'm planning on cleaning the water dish and putting some new water in (I'm using bottled water, not tap), since there's some substrate in the dish now. Also, I think I'll add some more substrate and pack it down. My current plan is to pick her up and put her into another container for a few minutes while I do that. And take a few pictures in the sunlight while she's out, too.

Also, she found the hide! It's a half-burried cup.

I changed from the Flucker's Orange Cube to just lettuce and oats and some other stuff for cricket food, too.

And here's some more pictures of how it currently is:

It looks kinda steamy or something in there but that's just the glare on the cage.

That's the best picture I can get of the water dish.

I recently inherited an expensive camera too, so I might be able to get some nice pictures with that.

 

[VanessaS]

Yes, they can move rocks around. When you are doing anything in her enclosure - be careful not to put your hands in the substrate. Use something else to pat it down... like a container or something. Or wear rubber gloves. They put their urticating hairs all over the place and it can be very uncomfortable to have them all over your hands.
I've done it in the past, without thinking, and paid dearly for it.

 

[Sonicookie]

Yes, they can move rocks around. When you are doing anything in her enclosure - be careful not to put your hands in the substrate. Use something else to pat it down... like a container or something. Or wear rubber gloves. They put their urticating hairs all over the place and it can be very uncomfortable to have them all over your hands.
I've done it in the past, without thinking, and paid dearly for it.

Thanks! Right now I'm waiting for her to come out of the cup. It seems like a bad idea to pull her out of it. If I did she might not consider it safe anymore.

 

[Sonicookie]

I added more substrate (and packed it down). I am also planning to feed her today, since it's a week from when I got her.

And here's one form before:

 

[VanessaS]

Looking good.