Howdy,
Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm new to the world of keeping spiders. Over my many years, I've kept all sorts of animals from a flapneck chameleon and leopard gecko, to several species of frogs and salamanders to our box turtle who we estimate to be in her mid 30's. I've had her for 23 years and her previous owner 8. And she found her at a park and was already full grown at that time. I even kept several giant African milipeeds back when they were legal. So I'm no stranger to keeping exotic and strange animals. But tarantulas were the one animal I never took the plunge on.
But my daughter has been wanting a tarantula for some time now. So I've been doing my research to learn all I can so I can help when she finally gets one. Problem is, now I have become slightly obsessed myself. Almost as much as I used to be about frogs.
I shop at our local pet store for meal worms and crickets to feed our box turtle and a jumping spider we've been keeping as practice for my daughter. For the last few weeks I've been looking at the tarantulas they have there. And the ones I really got interested in and havr researched extensively, was a little acrylic cage at the register with four m. balfouri slings.
They seemed well adjusted to their cage. I'd seen a couple of them scurry about while I was there. They are about an inch to inch and a quarter or so. The fact that they are a communal species is amazing to me. So Friday I finally got permission from the real boss in the house to set up a space for them in the living room and bring them home.
It was their feeding day and they hadn't been fed yet so I was given their little crickets to feed when I got them home. I was afraid they might need an adjustment period like the tree frogs I've kept seem to do when first relocated to our home. But I tried feeding them anyway just because it was the schedule they had been been fed on. And next day there were two of the four crickets left. Then last night my daughter and I saw one of them chomping down on one of the remaining crickets. So apparently being disturbed and moved about didn't hurt their appetite.
Their enclosure is set up just as I have seen and read about. So I'm not messing with it. They like it and feed and drink in it fine. It's actually why I got them instead of one of the many others in their little temporary cups. I figured (hoped) that the adjustment period would be little to none since they were already burrowed up in this enclosure.
I hope if issues arise I can find help from others here who may have experience with them. But for now, so far so good. They will eventually be kept in the master bedroom where the temperature stays more constant and a few degrees warmer than the big living room. I just need to move some things around.
Thanks for the forum whoever set this up.
Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm new to the world of keeping spiders. Over my many years, I've kept all sorts of animals from a flapneck chameleon and leopard gecko, to several species of frogs and salamanders to our box turtle who we estimate to be in her mid 30's. I've had her for 23 years and her previous owner 8. And she found her at a park and was already full grown at that time. I even kept several giant African milipeeds back when they were legal. So I'm no stranger to keeping exotic and strange animals. But tarantulas were the one animal I never took the plunge on.
But my daughter has been wanting a tarantula for some time now. So I've been doing my research to learn all I can so I can help when she finally gets one. Problem is, now I have become slightly obsessed myself. Almost as much as I used to be about frogs.
I shop at our local pet store for meal worms and crickets to feed our box turtle and a jumping spider we've been keeping as practice for my daughter. For the last few weeks I've been looking at the tarantulas they have there. And the ones I really got interested in and havr researched extensively, was a little acrylic cage at the register with four m. balfouri slings.
They seemed well adjusted to their cage. I'd seen a couple of them scurry about while I was there. They are about an inch to inch and a quarter or so. The fact that they are a communal species is amazing to me. So Friday I finally got permission from the real boss in the house to set up a space for them in the living room and bring them home.
It was their feeding day and they hadn't been fed yet so I was given their little crickets to feed when I got them home. I was afraid they might need an adjustment period like the tree frogs I've kept seem to do when first relocated to our home. But I tried feeding them anyway just because it was the schedule they had been been fed on. And next day there were two of the four crickets left. Then last night my daughter and I saw one of them chomping down on one of the remaining crickets. So apparently being disturbed and moved about didn't hurt their appetite.
Their enclosure is set up just as I have seen and read about. So I'm not messing with it. They like it and feed and drink in it fine. It's actually why I got them instead of one of the many others in their little temporary cups. I figured (hoped) that the adjustment period would be little to none since they were already burrowed up in this enclosure.
I hope if issues arise I can find help from others here who may have experience with them. But for now, so far so good. They will eventually be kept in the master bedroom where the temperature stays more constant and a few degrees warmer than the big living room. I just need to move some things around.
Thanks for the forum whoever set this up.
