Questions and a hello!

[Richard Shah]

Hey People
Firstly, I'd like to say hello to everyone here at the BTS! I am very happy to be here, and I am new to caring for tarantulas, and I haven't yet got one, but I am considering the Chilean Rose. I read it requires 60-70% humidity, and I need to know what would be required to keep up the levels; is there a special piece of equipment I need for that? Or are the certain things I should do in order to keep up the levels?
Also, I hope I am not violaing any rules by asking this, as it would definitely be a bad start - but a certain website called Exotic Pets say they sell such animals as tarantulas - is this true? Can I trust them?
Thanks,
Richard Shah

[Louise~Nichols]

Hello Richard,
Welcome in and enjoy your time with us!
As for your G.Rosea choice, there is no special equipment you need for maintaining humidity at all, just a water bowl!

As for places to purchase... please go see www.thespidershop.co.uk
That's my personal fave; excellent service, lovely variety and the spideys are well packed for transit. Ahhh...maybe I'm biased!! LOL

[Richard Shah]

Thank you

Hello Richard,
Welcome in and enjoy your time with us!
As for your G.Rosea choice, there is no special equipment you need for maintaining humidity at all, just a water bowl!

As for places to purchase... please go see www.thespidershop.co.uk
That's my personal fave; excellent service, lovely variety and the spideys are well packed for transit. Ahhh...maybe I'm biased!! LOL

Thank you very much for your kind welcome . I'm glad to hear that I do not need any special equipment - I was pretty worried when I saw the humidity levels that it required!
As for being biased - lol it doesn't matter to me at all! As long as I am hearing good customer reviews about it, I'll put my trust in whoever told me (in this case you ) and the company itself.
The reason I asked about the humidity was cuz it seemed really high to me, but clearly - it really isn't!
Cheers,
Rich.
BTW if I was to buy a spiderling - what would I feed it with? I'm pretty sure that a criket would slaughter the little spider.

[Louise~Nichols]

Rich, it's always a pleasure to welcome new enthusiasts, there are always questions to ask...and I know all the lovely souls in here will also be of support for any queries that you have.

Humidity can seem such a big deal, but for perspective...I have a hygrometer on my living room wall...and it shows about 60% just in my home, so I know I don't need to worry about the spideys!! We have a lot more moisture around us than we realise.

You'll hear a lot of positive feedback relating to The Spider Shop...I'm always raiding for something!! Others on my *purchase from* list are tarantulabarn, and tarantulashop...you'll regularly see banners to link to them at the top of the forum...all good people, genuine service.

[Louise~Nichols]

BTW if I was to buy a spiderling - what would I feed it with? I'm pretty sure that a criket would slaughter the little spider.

I feed my babies on chopped cricket or maggot, which they then pounce on and feed til their hearts content...but I do have rather a lot of spiderlings!

[Tom Forman]

Hi Richard,
hope you enjoy the spider you go for.

The site mentioned is very good but I have just a high opinion of these two aswell:

www.tarantula-shop.com
www.virginiacheeseman.co.uk

Don't be put off by the humidity too much. Basically a spider will absorb its moisture from its food, if humidity is kept really high (70-80%), then it will not need to drink water and will never dehydrate.
If humidity is kept lower for convenience sake the spider can still either rehydrate by going into his moist burrow(bottom of substrate should be kept moist at all times imo) or drink some water.

What you will need is a heater mat to keep the tarantula enclosure dropping below 20 degrees c(sold at thespidershop.co.uk).

Keeping humidity high is not difficult at all anyway, moist substrate or a water bowl in a heated enclosure will very quickly get humidity up.

[Richard Shah]

Hi Richard,
hope you enjoy the spider you go for.

The site mentioned is very good but I have just a high opinion of these two aswell:

www.tarantula-shop.com
www.virginiacheeseman.co.uk

Don't be put off by the humidity too much. Basically a spider will absorb its moisture from its food, if humidity is kept really high (70-80%), then it will not need to drink water and will never dehydrate.
If humidity is kept lower for convenience sake the spider can still either rehydrate by going into his moist burrow(bottom of substrate should be kept moist at all times imo) or drink some water.

What you will need is a heater mat to keep the tarantula enclosure dropping below 20 degrees c(sold at thespidershop.co.uk).

Keeping humidity high is not difficult at all anyway, moist substrate or a water bowl in a heated enclosure will very quickly get humidity up.

Thank you very much for your help and your welcome and your links - definitely useful. I did hear the substrate should be kept damp - how would I go about accomplishing that without actually soaking it?? Also, does the heating mats sold at the spider shop resourceful with elec.?

I feed my babies on chopped cricket or maggot, which they then pounce on and feed til their hearts content...but I do have rather a lot of spiderlings!

Thank you. Do you mind if I ask how often you give them the chopped cricket, and how much? Also, how do you (personally I mean) tend to store your crickets? I was looking at the quantities they sell them in at the pet store, and it's quite big a quanitity! And when you try to feed them to the tarantulas, do they not jump around a lot?

I'm sorry about all the questions, I just need to know.

Thank you, everyone,
Rich!

[Peter Lacey]

This should give you all the info you need for a Chili Rose.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/%7Eschultz/roses.html

You'll find most people refer to the latin names for a much more positive identity. So, try pronouncing Grammostola rosea to your friends to make yourself look smart
Take the time to set things up before purchasing the tarantula, keep asking questions and read as much as possible. Soon you'll be giving advice, posting pix and increasing your collection (just don't tell the wife!!!!)

[Louise~Nichols]

Thank you. Do you mind if I ask how often you give them the chopped cricket, and how much? Also, how do you (personally I mean) tend to store your crickets? I was looking at the quantities they sell them in at the pet store, and it's quite big a quanitity! And when you try to feed them to the tarantulas, do they not jump around a lot?

I'm sorry about all the questions, I just need to know.

Thank you, everyone,
Rich!

Rich...I give my babies chopped cricket every 3 to 4 days. If you imagine a cricket of standard size, chopped into 4 pieces they eat what they can and I just remove the rest the following day...although there have been times when I have seen slings still munching 24 hours later!!
I store my crickets in large, well ventilated tanks...I provide pieces of egg carton for them to hide under, a water bowl with pebbles in to prevent drowning and then feed them on fish flakes.
When feeding my adult tarantulas, I have boisterous ones that do enjoy chasing a cricket around...but there are others that take food directly from my forceps! So no real problems there...just remove any uneaten prey the following day. Hope that helps.

[Peter Lacey]

... I did hear the substrate should be kept damp - how would I go about accomplishing that without actually soaking it?? Also, does the heating mats sold at the spider shop resourceful with elec.?

...I was looking at the quantities they sell them in at the pet store, and it's quite big a quanitity! And when you try to feed them to the tarantulas, do they not jump around a lot?

A simple water bowl (plastic milk bottle top) overflowed occassionally should keep the substrate moist. Just remember its natural habitat is very dry so not too much and be careful not to drown the T in its burrow!

Crickets are dumb insects, if they were in a horror movie they'd be the first into the dimly lit basement where the noise comes from. Tarantula can be lazy, so they just wait at their burrow until the cricket approaches and then its time for the scary music

[Richard Shah]

This should give you all the info you need for a Chili Rose.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/%7Eschultz/roses.html
You'll find most people refer to the latin names for a much more positive identity. So, try pronouncing Grammostola rosea to your friends to make yourself look smart
Take the time to set things up before purchasing the tarantula, keep asking questions and read as much as possible. Soon you'll be giving advice, posting pix and increasing your collection (just don't tell the wife!!!!)

Thanks for the link. Trust me I don't need to say that to look smart (I hope, but I hear good things I bent my age a bit because I thought I wouldn't be allowed to sign up as a 13 year old, I feel stupid now. Lol the wife can wait for a good 10 - 15 years! I will definitely set things up before I buy the T., and hopefully giving advice. I don't know about increasing the collection though, guess I'll have to wait and see. Maybe a scorpion in a few years!

Rich...I give my babies chopped cricket every 3 to 4 days. If you imagine a cricket of standard size, chopped into 4 pieces they eat what they can and I just remove the rest the following day...although there have been times when I have seen slings still munching 24 hours later!!
I store my crickets in large, well ventilated tanks...I provide pieces of egg carton for them to hide under, a water bowl with pebbles in to prevent drowning and then feed them on fish flakes.
When feeding my adult tarantulas, I have boisterous ones that do enjoy chasing a cricket around...but there are others that take food directly from my forceps! So no real problems there...just remove any uneaten prey the following day. Hope that helps.

Lol, I can imagine the spiderlings would be doing that! That did help a lot, thank you. Ahh the crickets, that may be where the problems come in for me. I'll have to think about accomidating space for them; I saw how they are stored in the pet shop though - there are so many of them, and all of them are crammed into a really tiny container, giving them hardly any space to move!
What is the easiest way of killing a cricket; I don't mean to sound morbid, but when you chop them up, are they alive when you take the first slice?

A simple water bowl (plastic milk bottle top) overflowed occassionally should keep the substrate moist. Just remember its natural habitat is very dry so not too much and be careful not to drown the T in its burrow!

Crickets are dumb insects, if they were in a horror movie they'd be the first into the dimly lit basement where the noise comes from. Tarantula can be lazy, so they just wait at their burrow until the cricket approaches and then its time for the scary music

Lol. Thanks a lot, I'll take that information in! Maybe I could get a motion detector inside the tank, and when it senses the two are close, it switches on an mp3 player!

[Louise~Nichols]

Lol, I can imagine the spiderlings would be doing that! That did help a lot, thank you. Ahh the crickets, that may be where the problems come in for me. I'll have to think about accomidating space for them; I saw how they are stored in the pet shop though - there are so many of them, and all of them are crammed into a really tiny container, giving them hardly any space to move!
What is the easiest way of killing a cricket; I don't mean to sound morbid, but when you chop them up, are they alive when you take the first slice?

You're very welcome Rich.
The easiest way to kill a cricket...muahahahah...the goth in me is about to rear its head, lol....I tend to just take a sharp scalpel and decapitate them...but even so, if you cut the cricket in such a way that two legs are attached to the head segment....it runs off across the floor....and the rear end goes in the opposite direction... ooops! LOL I'll just put my halo back on and pretend that I sing lullabies to them whilst gently euthanasing them to the sounds of a specially rigged mp3 player!!

[Richard Shah]

You're very welcome Rich.
The easiest way to kill a cricket...muahahahah...the goth in me is about to rear its head, lol....I tend to just take a sharp scalpel and decapitate them...but even so, if you cut the cricket in such a way that two legs are attached to the head segment....it runs off across the floor....and the rear end goes in the opposite direction... ooops! LOL I'll just put my halo back on and pretend that I sing lullabies to them whilst gently euthanasing them to the sounds of a specially rigged mp3 player!!

Lool!! Very useful on how to kill them. How exactly would you manage to cut it like that though?? (Just for, informational purposes )

[Louise~Nichols]

Hehehe...Rich, you get a nice pair of very pointy tweezers, hold the cricket just behind the head..and then *shazzam*, scalpel straight down in front of the tweezer tips...clean cut everytime...and loads of heads running around...*whistles innocently*

[Richard Shah]

Hehehe...Rich, you get a nice pair of very pointy tweezers, hold the cricket just behind the head..and then *shazzam*, scalpel straight down in front of the tweezer tips...clean cut everytime...and loads of heads running around...*whistles innocently*

Kl! Lol that's pretty sick! I'm going to have to think about where to store them; hopefully I can save up some more money, buy another tank and hopefully convince my mum about the tarantula and the crickets (<< that's the main thing, convincing my mum! rofl) I feel for those crickets in the pet store though, they were packed really tightly!