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Found the site sometime ago and it recurd'led my interest in T's
Here’s my story for anyone who’s interested.
Well back in 1998 (A year after I bought my first house) I visited a little dark pet shop in Wednesfield (A small ancient market town just outside Wolverhampton) He had a single T a lonely looking spider with reddish legs, I was told “That’s a male mate”, I thought what a beautiful thing. I parted with quite a sum of money for it (Well it was then) Then we set about the task of finding out how to care for it, well I’m pretty sure that most of the UK members on here would have struggled like I did in those days to find information (No Superhighway then) I did manage to get a book / pamphlet via mail order called Tarantula Keeping, I lost the book some 10 years ago before I moved to what is my current house, what I do remember is a colour photo of a very fat T called “Duchess” did anyone buy it ???, Anyway after much searching I found that we had bought a Red Knee, After much reading I bought a small fish tank which I half filled with Vermiculite and lump wood, I then scrounged one of my Fathers Home Brew heat pads, a small dish for water, and we called it “Ben” I have quite a few pictures of it in those early days some I have attached to this message, (They are scans of old 6x4 photo’s, sorry about the quality) Wife decided she didn't want her face shown I suppose she was worried someone might photochop it in someway
Wifey with Ben, Before Kids
Ben having a run about
Earliest Picture I have this was circa 1988
Ben got on well, and loved (Well it seemed happy) walking around the living room, sometimes we would loose him for a bit but he always turned up (He loved eating house spiders, It was the only time we saw him move fast), Ben moulted a number of times (See later for tips found out the hard way), about a year later I managed to get a more comprehensive book on T, And then realised two things firstly that Mexican Red Knees are not tropical habitat spiders (At this point we reduced the condensation/humidity levels) and secondly set about finding a new name, It was a Female spider sexed from its last cast skin, after a short while we thought no stick with Ben so we did.
Late picture of Ben with Lump wood and moss
On Christmas day 1990 we had our First child a bouncing baby boy, anyway we had concerns about Ben liberal lifestyle and also the fact we had a child in the house, we didn’t want to give Ben away to an uncertain future (A number of friends said they would love to have him) he was very popular with all (well most) of our friends, in saying that we did loose a couple who said they would never set foot in our house while “IT” was still there. As the next year progressed and Christopher stated walking at 10 months Ben had to be confined to her tank for her own good. Friends would call around to see her (and us) Ben became a little unpredictable and if you reached into the tank she would very quickly run up your arm (This would startle people who visited us and knew her as a carpet sloth) Since Ben was now confined to her Tank 99% of the time and my wife had finished work while Christopher and 18 months later Samantha grew up we decided to buy a puppy from Sunny Side dog rescue in Wolverhampton, We thought it would be good for the Kids to give them confidence around animals (I know what you are thinking, and no the dog didn’t kill Ben), I decided to get our house professionally decorated the company we chose was “Wares” a nice chap called Tony was the boss, He showed a lot of interest in Ben but admitted he wouldn’t want one, However a mutual friend of his looked after the reptile house at Dudley Zoo and after about 6 weeks she came and collected Ben and all of her belongings, Ben I believe went to live at Dudley Zoo eventually (Does anyone know her, I think her name was Margaret) Years passed and the children loved looking at the photo’s we had. Samantha is now 13 and visited a local pet shop and quickly returned stating that they sell tarantulas, I didn’t take much talking into a visit, They had a small C. Rose (4.5inch) now for the past 14 years I haven’t really read up much about T’s so I thought do your homework first, well it seemed that the C.Rose was a good choice after asking the pet shop person if it was eating and also checking its cage I found 1 live locust and a half eaten one, I queried the situation and he said she had gone off her food (after going through at least 4 moults with Ben this really didn’t bother me that much and to my surprise the pet shop owner seemed more concerned for her well being, this was probably because of is own inexperience, his main business is reptiles) So I went armed money in hand and bought it complete with a home, (complete it cost me about half what Ben did, however I do think the pet shop person thought it was dieing) it was the 20th November 2005, Samantha called her “Siefer”, We bought her a new home a nice glass house with hinged diagonal lid, a nice piece of hollowed out lump wood and vermiculite base, This base setup was chosen purely because of the pre-moult and to control the odours, Here’s a tip for you (I’m not trying to teach my granny to suck eggs etc etc This worked for Ben and has now proved successful for Siefer) If you believe your T is in pre-Moult replace its substrate with vermiculite make sure it has a constant water supply, I do not vaporise the Tank, Ben nor Siefer seemed to like it and at this stage it doesn’t really help, Once the T has weaved its bed (C.Rose seems to prefer a flat bed, MRK seemed to prefer a angled bed up at one side usually onto its lump wood) and flipped over (Both did this) I then poured about 2 pints of luke warm water onto the substrate (Judge this yourself Siefer has a nice large tank), enough to completely condensate the interior, Ben moulted much quicker than Siefer but Siefer completed her moult in about 12 Hours.
This is Siefer having a climb two days after moult
Here is her home you might just see her above right to the bottle of stella
This is how it went
8am Laying a Bed of Weave about 6x6 inch
10am Flipped onto back and is lying very still
2pm Still Lying very still
3pm More water added to substrate to maintain condensation/humidity levels (We have a constant temperature house with room wall stats)
4pm slight leg movement
5pm more leg movement
6pm Very still for more than an hour (Don’t be tempted to prod)
7pm Moult split head and back (Scientific Term lol)
7:15pm obvious moult with legs free 20cm
7:30pm moult complete
7:45pm Spider very still and on back
8pm no movement on back
8:30 no movement
9pm no movement
10pm Siefer starts to flip back onto feet very sluggish
Next day she is still only walking a short distance and always returning to her web pad, stretching out a little
2 Days Later, I removed the old substrate and replaced it with a 80/20 Mix of Irish Peat Moss and Vermiculite and her lump wood (Which has been cooked on 180c for 45 mins to kill any bugs) Pic Attached.
Anyway that’s about all for now, I’m still exploring this informative site, you have seen Siefers house do you think it would be in order to divide this into 2 and allow another to live at the front of would the close proximity cause problems with the T’s
The case exoskeleton post moult
It looks like she has gained about an inch in length
Comments or reccomendations gratefully received
Sorry @admin if this is a bit long winded but I wanted to share it with other T lovers.
Thanks
Neil
Here’s my story for anyone who’s interested.
Well back in 1998 (A year after I bought my first house) I visited a little dark pet shop in Wednesfield (A small ancient market town just outside Wolverhampton) He had a single T a lonely looking spider with reddish legs, I was told “That’s a male mate”, I thought what a beautiful thing. I parted with quite a sum of money for it (Well it was then) Then we set about the task of finding out how to care for it, well I’m pretty sure that most of the UK members on here would have struggled like I did in those days to find information (No Superhighway then) I did manage to get a book / pamphlet via mail order called Tarantula Keeping, I lost the book some 10 years ago before I moved to what is my current house, what I do remember is a colour photo of a very fat T called “Duchess” did anyone buy it ???, Anyway after much searching I found that we had bought a Red Knee, After much reading I bought a small fish tank which I half filled with Vermiculite and lump wood, I then scrounged one of my Fathers Home Brew heat pads, a small dish for water, and we called it “Ben” I have quite a few pictures of it in those early days some I have attached to this message, (They are scans of old 6x4 photo’s, sorry about the quality) Wife decided she didn't want her face shown I suppose she was worried someone might photochop it in someway
Wifey with Ben, Before Kids
Ben having a run about
Earliest Picture I have this was circa 1988
Ben got on well, and loved (Well it seemed happy) walking around the living room, sometimes we would loose him for a bit but he always turned up (He loved eating house spiders, It was the only time we saw him move fast), Ben moulted a number of times (See later for tips found out the hard way), about a year later I managed to get a more comprehensive book on T, And then realised two things firstly that Mexican Red Knees are not tropical habitat spiders (At this point we reduced the condensation/humidity levels) and secondly set about finding a new name, It was a Female spider sexed from its last cast skin, after a short while we thought no stick with Ben so we did.
Late picture of Ben with Lump wood and moss
On Christmas day 1990 we had our First child a bouncing baby boy, anyway we had concerns about Ben liberal lifestyle and also the fact we had a child in the house, we didn’t want to give Ben away to an uncertain future (A number of friends said they would love to have him) he was very popular with all (well most) of our friends, in saying that we did loose a couple who said they would never set foot in our house while “IT” was still there. As the next year progressed and Christopher stated walking at 10 months Ben had to be confined to her tank for her own good. Friends would call around to see her (and us) Ben became a little unpredictable and if you reached into the tank she would very quickly run up your arm (This would startle people who visited us and knew her as a carpet sloth) Since Ben was now confined to her Tank 99% of the time and my wife had finished work while Christopher and 18 months later Samantha grew up we decided to buy a puppy from Sunny Side dog rescue in Wolverhampton, We thought it would be good for the Kids to give them confidence around animals (I know what you are thinking, and no the dog didn’t kill Ben), I decided to get our house professionally decorated the company we chose was “Wares” a nice chap called Tony was the boss, He showed a lot of interest in Ben but admitted he wouldn’t want one, However a mutual friend of his looked after the reptile house at Dudley Zoo and after about 6 weeks she came and collected Ben and all of her belongings, Ben I believe went to live at Dudley Zoo eventually (Does anyone know her, I think her name was Margaret) Years passed and the children loved looking at the photo’s we had. Samantha is now 13 and visited a local pet shop and quickly returned stating that they sell tarantulas, I didn’t take much talking into a visit, They had a small C. Rose (4.5inch) now for the past 14 years I haven’t really read up much about T’s so I thought do your homework first, well it seemed that the C.Rose was a good choice after asking the pet shop person if it was eating and also checking its cage I found 1 live locust and a half eaten one, I queried the situation and he said she had gone off her food (after going through at least 4 moults with Ben this really didn’t bother me that much and to my surprise the pet shop owner seemed more concerned for her well being, this was probably because of is own inexperience, his main business is reptiles) So I went armed money in hand and bought it complete with a home, (complete it cost me about half what Ben did, however I do think the pet shop person thought it was dieing) it was the 20th November 2005, Samantha called her “Siefer”, We bought her a new home a nice glass house with hinged diagonal lid, a nice piece of hollowed out lump wood and vermiculite base, This base setup was chosen purely because of the pre-moult and to control the odours, Here’s a tip for you (I’m not trying to teach my granny to suck eggs etc etc This worked for Ben and has now proved successful for Siefer) If you believe your T is in pre-Moult replace its substrate with vermiculite make sure it has a constant water supply, I do not vaporise the Tank, Ben nor Siefer seemed to like it and at this stage it doesn’t really help, Once the T has weaved its bed (C.Rose seems to prefer a flat bed, MRK seemed to prefer a angled bed up at one side usually onto its lump wood) and flipped over (Both did this) I then poured about 2 pints of luke warm water onto the substrate (Judge this yourself Siefer has a nice large tank), enough to completely condensate the interior, Ben moulted much quicker than Siefer but Siefer completed her moult in about 12 Hours.
This is Siefer having a climb two days after moult
Here is her home you might just see her above right to the bottle of stella
This is how it went
8am Laying a Bed of Weave about 6x6 inch
10am Flipped onto back and is lying very still
2pm Still Lying very still
3pm More water added to substrate to maintain condensation/humidity levels (We have a constant temperature house with room wall stats)
4pm slight leg movement
5pm more leg movement
6pm Very still for more than an hour (Don’t be tempted to prod)
7pm Moult split head and back (Scientific Term lol)
7:15pm obvious moult with legs free 20cm
7:30pm moult complete
7:45pm Spider very still and on back
8pm no movement on back
8:30 no movement
9pm no movement
10pm Siefer starts to flip back onto feet very sluggish
Next day she is still only walking a short distance and always returning to her web pad, stretching out a little
2 Days Later, I removed the old substrate and replaced it with a 80/20 Mix of Irish Peat Moss and Vermiculite and her lump wood (Which has been cooked on 180c for 45 mins to kill any bugs) Pic Attached.
Anyway that’s about all for now, I’m still exploring this informative site, you have seen Siefers house do you think it would be in order to divide this into 2 and allow another to live at the front of would the close proximity cause problems with the T’s
The case exoskeleton post moult
It looks like she has gained about an inch in length
Comments or reccomendations gratefully received
Sorry @admin if this is a bit long winded but I wanted to share it with other T lovers.
Thanks
Neil
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