Story time...Where did you start?

[Tgotty90]

Alright guys, starting to see alot of new faces on here and been starting to ask myself the same question I get asked all the time. WHY IN THE WORLD DO WE DO THIS??? Lol I have alot of friends that ask me what my deal is and its the same story every time. I got my first T as a joke to mess with my nephew and the joke turned into a obsession. I had mentioned that we needed to add something new to the collection and a tarantula was the first thing that came to mind. My nephew bout slapped me and said "Scotty if you get one of those ill disown you". Well the next day I figured id surprise him and picked up a rose hair to bring home. He was mad at me at first but I assured him it would be fun and he slowly got more enthusiastic about our new pet as did I. Being scared of spiders as a kid made me wonder what I was doing and suddenly found myself watching this thing all the time, started to do a lil more research and discovered how beautiful these creatures really are. Since then I was hooked, 20 Ts later and my nephews grown more attracted to the subject as well. We're about to start a series of video care sheets for all our animals for his youtube channel as he's getting into making his own videos. Very exciting for me and him... At any rate I was curious to ask anyone who cares to share how they got into this hobby as well. Im sure this will be interesting.

NOTE: I've been dealing with exotics my whole life. My older brother and I started collecting geckos and agamidaes when I was just 7 years old and later snakes and chameleons as a got older. I've only been in the T hobby 4 or 5 years and just recently expanded my collection.

 

[Enn49]

My son had wanted a T for many years but as an arachnophobe I'd always said NO. He grew up, left home then came back and 4 years ago he asked again so I bought him a G.rosea for his birthday. Sadly Bugg was only with us a few months before she died as a result of a bad moult so a replacement was sought and he settled on a P. vittata. Now this one grabbed my attention, I began watching it more and more and eventually, 3 years ago, decided to buy myself an OBT (Zera, who's in my avatar). I now have 66 Ts plus 10 little ones most of which I will sell on, 2 Regal Jumping Spiders and an egg sac of baby jumpers.
They are fascinating creatures. It amazes me how different species set up their homes and behave.

 

[MassExodus]

TarantulaAddict on youtube. Someone mentioned a tarantula molting, which I had never known they do, so out of boredom and curiosity one day I started watching videos of them. Then started doing research. Seven years or so later, I have around 70 something arachnids. I still watch videos of them, too The only animals I like more are dogs, who I'm convinced were a direct gift from god to man.

 

[PanzoN88]

It started in I think November 2013, I was an arachnophobe who wanted nothing to do with anything with eight legs and being an animal lover, I was furious with myself for not liking these magnificent creatures. I did some research and figured I would just get a G. Porteri at a pet store, little did I know in February 2014 I would discover an entire hobby dedicated to tarantulas. So I decided to research individual species and stumbled upon a video on YouTube that jon3800 made of his now late B. Albopilosum. After that video I realized that tarantulas are harmless. That is when I decided I would get a B. Albopilosum as my first tarantula. I took the first step in researching that species by joining A B in September 2014. A few days after joining I bought one from another member (that same B. Albopilosum is a 2"+ female now). Fast forward to this day in 2017 I now have a small collection of 14.

That is my story of how I embraced this fantastic addiction.

 

[Marija]

I wanted a tarantula for many years. I remember going to the pet store when I was still in middle school, seeing a black tarantula (what I now know to be a G pulchra). Couldn't stop staring at that beauty and always begged mom to get me one. Needless to say she was disgusted in a way hehe.
Never got one due to people being freaked out, until last year... A good friend of mine gave me an adult female L parahybana as a birthday present and the best birthday present it was!
A month after that I bought a G pulchripes, then a female N chromatus and so on...

 

[Tgotty90]

TarantulaAddict on youtube. Someone mentioned a tarantula molting, which I had never known they do, so out of boredom and curiosity one day I started watching videos of them. Then started doing research. Seven years or so later, I have around 70 something arachnids. I still watch videos of them, too The only animals I like more are dogs, who I'm convinced were a direct gift from god to man.

Gotta love videos, big factor for me too. I can watch T vids for hours till my job gets in the way also love dogs too, I have 6 year old american bulldog, her name is Bug Snug lol

 

[Tgotty90]

If I'm honest... I ordered a G.Porteri on impulse one night after a few too many... I was concerned the next day LMAO! However it was love at first sight and I've never looked back since... I'm at the point now where I think it's the people that are scared of them that are weird... I love fishing as an escape from everyday life but my T room is my sanctuary on the regular... (Just the spare room but "T room" sounds better lol)

Any room can be a T room lol I have mine in a divided room, reptiles on one side,Ts on the other. But I consider them 2 separate rooms.

 

[WolfSpider]

I always spiders from a young adult on.... Saving house wolfies from my petrified wife's .

Then I went to another boring medical conference. Before I fell asleep, I took out my I-pad and started to research retired life in Costa Rica. Eventually, I stumbled upon A. Seemani. Holy !!!! I didn't know such a cool thing could ever be a pet! I came home and declared to my wife that I wanted a T. 4 arguments later, I got a G. Pulchra sling. She asked, "What the hell kind of conference did you go to?" Now, 11 Ts later she is like a rat in an electric cage. She apathetically no longer flinches at each additional shock.

 

[Tgotty90]

Awesome stories guys lets keep em coming.

 

[kormath]

It's all my son's fault.

I never really liked spiders, not scared of them, just didn't like them unless they were pulp under my shoe, etc.

My son has always been fascinated with spiders, used to drive me nuts when he'd walk in the house at 7 yrs old with a wolf spider in his palm going "Dad look what i found!"

So fast forward to his 8th grade and freshman year of begging to get a T, and me saying "the only spiders in this house will be dead spiders". Last half of his freshman year he had to pick a study project to last through his high school years. He chose raising and studying a T. He wrote up a good enough project plan for it that he got a grant from the school to order the T and the enclosure and whatnot.

So May 13 2015 he receives his GBB "Marley", set's up the enclosure, then brings it home from school. I get home from work and he's all excited, "Dad guess what! i got a T!" and i'm like WTF?!?! then he explained it, so i said fine, it stays in your room or at school.

So a month goes by and now it's "Dad school is out, i have to bring Marley home" And i'm like Umm no, but what else can he do right? So now we have a T. First feeding time he brings it into my room just before bed, he told me they were more active then and wanted me to watch it feed. So i'm like whatever, hurry up. So he has me hold the enclosure while he gets a cricket ready. then he drops the cricket in and it fed like the GBB are famous for.

And i was hooked.

 

[Enn49]

Isn't it strange how so many of us have blamed our offspring?

 

[WolfSpider]

Kormath,

You are such a T affictionado, like you were born from an egg sac.....and you know SO MUCH. I never would have guessed that is was an adult acquired taste for you.

 

[Tgotty90]

Kormath,

You are such a T affictionado, like you were born from an egg sac.....and you know SO MUCH. I never would have guessed that is was an adult acquired taste for you.

It is amazing how knowledgeable everyone is on here. Hard to believe I've kept Ts longer than some of the old timers on here and I still feel like a newb sometimes lol thank goodness they do know there stuff, we get so much great advice and I don't know what id do with out it sometimes, that being said, thank you all again.

 

[Phil]

I used to keep and breed tropical fish. I spent most of my time in a local pet shop as I used to supply fish to the owner and we became good friends. My (first) wife would often just ring him and tell him when I needed to come home for dinner....lol
This was about 25 years ago and he then started to branch out into the "exotics" (snakes, lizards, geckos and spiders). I was never really interested with the other exotics but spiders really caught my attention. especially when a makeshift partition (polystyrene tile) he had used to separate 2 Tatntulas had an epic fail one day and 2 became 1. A dessert blond won that particular battle against a rose hair.
After that I was hooked (just like a MM....haha) and got my first T....a Brachypelma Smithi*
The pet shop owner and I also ran a charity for injured animals and did a number of creepy crawly roadshows with snakes and spiders etc for local schools and the like. Most of the time the kids were ok but the teachers were a wreck....although we did like to "teach Miss" a lesson or two.
various years passed, children came along as did wife number 2 and the collection. went up and down but no more than about 6 or 7 at any given time. Wife #2 decided she wanted a "new Phil" and so this left me completely free to extend my hobby so in the last 3 or 4 years although I have kept Ts for over 20 years, I now have 127 and I now have an impressive erection in the garden.... a purpose built "spider house" in which I hope to have many more and fulfil an ambition of breeding hopefully.

*I dont care what the scientists say...to me a smithi will ALWAYS be a smithi! (end of)

 

[kormath]

Kormath,

You are such a T affictionado, like you were born from an egg sac.....and you know SO MUCH. I never would have guessed that is was an adult acquired taste for you.

THanks!

My son and i have done lots of research, read the tarantula keepers guide (i recommend that to all, even though I thought it was worse than reading school textbooks) and mostly we learned from the greats here, i'd name names but i'd probably forget a few and that wouldn't be good

 

[PanzoN88]

It's great seeing how it all started for others. This thread is great.

 

[corij]

my dog died and i knew i wanted another but reality was i was now too busy at work it wouldnt be fair on a dog . what could i get instead? i browsed a local pet shop and came away with a adult female red rump, guy in shop said its a friendly one but he "hadnt got time mate " to show me how to handle it. aw well lets take her home

turns out its not friendly! and never will be - but im hooked

been back in the same shop a few times since and overheard same guy saying "hes ever so friendly" several times to prospective purchasers of all manner of critters

 

[IamKrush]

I've always been intrigued by them. Would enjoy seeing them at stores or friends homes. Watched T videos for a number of years. Discovered I was able to buy Ts online. Watched more videos & read info on different kinds i discovered. Found out T bites are like a more or less like a wasp sting. Got stung in the ear by a yellow jacket got very dizzy and felt like i was going to yuke for a few hours and felt crappy rest of the day. Decided I wanted some Ts to raise. A month later I owed my first 6. 5 of are still alive and doing well. Now as of 7/10/2017!12:35am I hve 19. That number will be chaging during the day.

 

[IamKrush]

I've always been intrigued by them. Would enjoy seeing them at stores or friends homes. Watched T videos for a number of years. Discovered I was able to buy Ts online. Watched more videos & read info on different kinds i discovered. Found out T bites are like a more or less like a wasp sting. Got stung in the ear by a yellow jacket got very dizzy and felt like i was going to yuke for a few hours and felt crappy rest of the day. Decided I wanted some Ts to raise. A month later I owed my first 6. 5 of are still alive and doing well. Now as of 7/10/2017!12:35am I hve 19. That number will be chaging during the day.

Now at 24

 

[Phil]

Now at 24

good effort. do share your list.